Stark Raving Shannon

Winter Finally Arrives in February

2012-02-04T09:22:00.000-08:00

We are experiencing our first major snow of the season today. And it's February! Luckily, it's also Saturday, so we're staying home. I still have to go out a few times to shovel off the back patio for our little Fillmore to be willing to go outside. But, I don't mind that. So, I've already planned out my indoor activities for the weekend. Crocheting, reading, movie watching, and game playing with the kids. We may have to add snowman making to that list.
On the crochet front, I've completed my granny stripe blanket (finally) and put a cute edging on it. I'm really happy with how it turned out.

And here is my latest project:A rainbow ripple pattern that I was planning to put up on etsy as a baby blanket, but Savannah is arguing that she should get to keep it. She's hard to turn down.

I've been hooked on this BBC show called Doc Martin that I've been watching on Netflix. So, I think I'll be finishing up that series today and maybe finishing up this ripple blanket. Then I have to choose an edging for it. I'll keep you posted.

A little Bieber Fever

2012-01-19T11:59:00.000-08:00

Savannah got to perform with the dance team at the varsity basketball game!

Ripple Ripple Ripple

2012-01-03T17:41:00.000-08:00

I had planned to make each of the kids a crocheted blanket for Christmas. I think I started working on Savannah's in early November. I started getting worried when I wasn't even half way done by Thanksgiving. I was carting this giant bag of yarn with me just about everywhere that I went. I needed every spare moment to crochet. And I was able to complete it. About a week before Christmas. And it turned out fabulous!

I had to make Myles a fleece blanket in his school colors because there was no way to finish another crocheted blanket. Both kids are very happy with their gifts.
Last weekend Savannah and I saw some ugly doll pillows. I decided to make us some.

Pretty cute for ugly pillows.

New Years Bomb

2012-01-02T22:13:00.000-08:00

Savannah spent the night at a friends house on new years eve. When I picked her up the next day, she asked me when new years happens. At midnight, I told her.
"Well, my friend's grandma said she let the little kids stay up for new years until 11. That's not new years."
"She probably meant they watched the New York new years on TV," I told her.
"So, is that what time the bomb drops? At 11, not midnight?" she asked.
"The bomb?"
"Yes, mom. The bomb. Does it drop at 11 or 12?" she asked with great exasperation.
"Well, there is a time difference between here and New York City. So, it's midnight there when it's 11 here." I explained.
"So, why don't they put the show on an hour later here, so that the bomb drops at midnight for everyone?"
"I guess it's because that show is done live," I told her and started to giggle.
"WHAT?" she asked, giving me the look foretelling of the teenage attitude that is right around the corner.
"When the bomb drops in New York City at midnight there and 11 here, does the whole city blow up or just Times Square?"
She pondered that for a second.
"Oh, I meant ball."
hee hee.

SQUEAKER! And the Post Christmas Trauma

2012-01-01T20:08:00.000-08:00

For Christmas this year, Fillmore got what may be the very best Christmas present ever. A squeaker toy! He truly loves squeaker toys. With A Passion!!And he's got some incredible skills too. Lucky for us, he is able to remove the plastic squeaker from nearly any squeaker toy in under an hour. An hour is about the maximum amount of time a human can withstand the constant squeaking from these toys. So, it works out perfectly.

But, this year, something magical happened. Fillmore got a squeaker toy and seemed to be savoring the squeak. He laid out on the couch and just squeaked and squeaked. Strangely, thought, he didn't seem to be trying to destroy it like normal. Just SQUEAK! SQUEAK! SQUEAK!
Unfortunately for him, this was coupled with many other Christmas gifts being opened and assembled. So, in a fit of stress, I was forced to take the squeaker toy and put it up to maintain my sanity.
Fillmore was not pleased.
And to teach me a lesson, he chose to curl up and pout on a blanket I am currently crocheting.

I felt sorry for him the next day and gave him his other squeaker toy. (He got 2.) And, due to the trauma he endured the previous day, he took that squeaker toy and tried to hide it from us. He hid it behind the Christmas trees and then sat on the couch and keeping vigil over the toy. After that spot became too risky, he went and retrieved his toy and tried putting it under some pillows and sat to watch it again. But, as soon as someone sat on the couch, he had to find another safe hiding place.
It was very funny to us, because he's never done this before. It's always been procedure for him to rip open the toy, retrieve the squeaker, spread all stuffing from one end of the house to the other, and then play only with the little chewed up plastic squeaker.
Day Three with this squeaker toy, and he was again trying to hide it under the tree. I was able to grab my camera without drawing any attention from him and snapped a picture of him.

As soon as the camera flashed, I was busted.

That afternoon, he finally ripped open the toy and got his squeaker out and I was not forced to put the squeaker toy up again. (The first one hasn't been returned to him yet, though. So, we still have another round of this to go.) And, I'm still finding bits of stuffing around the house.

Christmas Concert

2011-12-15T20:53:00.000-08:00

Tonight was Myles's middle school band concert. I could definitely hear the improvement that comes with a few years practice. They sounded very good. I'll post a video of Myles's middle school band performing and then a second video of the entire middle and high school band performing together along with the middle and high school choir. It was a pretty impressive finale! (And I learned that Myles is first saxophone and the other saxophones are second!)

It was another night of my camera curse. It never fails that if one of the kids has some special event happening, I either forget the camera, remember the camera but forget the sd card, forget to charge the camera battery, or bring a camera case with no camera in it. And, to complicate matters, if I manage to remember all the necessary parts of the camera, I will invariably be put in a position where my photography skills are so lacking that the pictures turn out horribly and I miss most of the performance, trying to figure out the settings on my camera. Myles's basketball season was plagued with all of these camera disasters. Tonight, I remembered the camera, remembered the sd card, but forgot to check that the battery was charged. (Of course.) Luckily, I was able to take videos on my phone.

I don't know who put the camera curse on me, but it's time for me to put an end to it. I'll be making an appointment with a witch doctor after the holidays. (Or maybe I should just read the camera manual or take a class. But, I prefer the witch doctor solution.)

Basketball

2011-12-12T19:50:00.000-08:00

Tonight was Myles's last middle school basketball game (of the season, and ever). It was a tough game, and they didn't win, but he was still great!
Here's a video of one of his nearly awesome moments.

And some pictures:

If he plays again next year, it'll be high school basketball! Yikes!

A Concert

2011-12-05T20:17:00.001-08:00

Tonight Savannah had her first band concert. It was a quick couple of Christmas songs that the 5th grade band played, and she was spectacular.

(By the way, those squeaks you hear are not coming from her.)

It Snowed!

2011-12-04T19:21:00.001-08:00

After enjoying a long stretch of mild weather, we were surprised with a big dump of snow. The kids spent Thanksgiving playing outside and it was warm enough for them to go out without a jacket.

We heard the forecast for up to 6 inches of snow and thought, "No way! It's not going to snow that much."
And this is what we were dealing with on Saturday.

I guess we were wrong!

Happy 4th ! (Continued)

2011-07-05T14:57:00.000-07:00

Well, I had intended to make this a 3 part posting. I had anticipated having some fun additions to our weekend festivities after a second fireworks show on Sunday night. However, when I was trying to get my kids ready to go, they both looked at me and whined, "Do we HAVE to go?"
What?
Really?
So, Sunday night was spent cleaning the house instead. (I think the fireworks show would have been more fun.)
Monday was fun. We had family over for our annual FIREWORKS SPECTACULAR. All in all, I think things went well.

After a very late night on the 4th, I had to get up this Tuesday morning to return to work.
I was VERY tired.
This is what the morning of the 5th of July looks like:

It's raining now, so we have a lot of soggy fireworks to pick up.

And Myles, who went to a party at a friend's house last night, fed most of the local mosquito population single-handedly. 56 bug bites is what he counted. 22 on one leg alone. (Unfortunately, the world record is 70-something. He looked it up.)
He looks like he's got the chicken pox. We'll be buying up a lot of Benedryl cream.

Happy 5th of July!

Happy 4th! (Part One)

2011-07-03T11:05:00.000-07:00

We have begun our Fourth of July celebrations. Saturday was spent watching Myles's last regular season baseball game. The heat mostly held off for us too. And our bleachers were located in the shade, which is my preference anyway. Of course, I still managed to get a little sunburned anyway.
We ended the day with a trip out to TD Ameritrade park to watch the College Home Run Derby. It was really fun. The sky was cloudy until we got inside the ballpark. That's when the sun came out and began baking us.

We had to walk nearly the entire circumference of the park to get to our seats and by the time we found them, we were SWEATY!! We sat in our sweat for about an hour waiting for the sun to go down.We survived it and things got a lot more comfortable once the sun went away. The kids got to enjoy $12 worth of Dip 'n Dots ice cream. That always sweetens the deal.
Here is Daniel Aldrich, the winner of the home run derby. After the home run derby was over we were treated to a fireworks show. The ballpark opened up the outfield for us to sit in to watch the fireworks. This was super exciting!!
I learned that I am not able to capture a picture of all 3 of us together while holding the camera out in front of us. But if I smoosh these 2 together, you can see all of all 3 of us.
After a short wait, the fireworks finally started. Our prime seating in the outfield placed us directly under all the hot cinders, ash, and chunks of firework shrapnel. We had all of these things raining down upon us for the entire 30 minute show. Myles was best equipped to deal with this. There was all kinds of paper pieces all over the ground after the show was over. We, of course, brought home a couple of handfuls as souvenirs. And after sweating profusely for the first hour of the home run derby and then finishing up the night being showered by ashes, I looked hot on the walk back to the car.
We are going to another fireworks show tonight. The 3 day weekend is off to a great start!!

Halving your Great Dane

2011-06-27T17:36:00.000-07:00

I guess the animals in my life have been monopolizing my blogging lately, but they seem to take up a lot of time in my life so I guess it's fitting. I have learned (the hard way) that when choosing a dog with short hair on the presumption that you have just saved yourself a lot of grooming expense for this dog's lifetime, that presumption was made in error. Case in point: Boris. I may not need a groomer to trim his locks, but I do need a vacuum with the sucking capabilities of a black hole.
He leaves piles of hair where ever he lays.
Piles.
And piles.
And piles.
Numerous times I have had my vacuum completely clogged and require me to disassemble it to clear it all due to dog hair. It's unreal.
Today I documented the disaster I'm dealing with.
This is Boris during a brushing.

And this is only some of the hair he left behind. I'm pretty sure I just halved my great dane!

Adventures in Dogsitting -- The End

2011-06-23T05:35:00.000-07:00

Well, our doggy guests have gone back home. I was a successful doggy sitter, having returned them to their rightful owners alive and healthy. It was a little disappointing that the most entertaining trick done by one of our house guests wasn't discovered until the day she was scheduled to leave. Here is Ellie singing the blues:

Adventures in Dogsitting -- Day Three & Four

2011-06-18T20:38:00.000-07:00

I'm combining 2 days here. We've been very busy with baseball and it's been difficult to chronicle all the excitement.
Yesterday with the dogs was pretty uneventful. Our most exciting moment was during Myles's baseball game when we learned that there was a tornado very close to Arlington. Yikes! We were about 30 minutes away from home at the game, but we had our doggy house guests to worry about. Luckily, the storm died down quickly and everything was fine at home.

This morning I woke up to a horrible stench in the house and a banging sound. Hmmm. Boris had pooped all over the hallway and was attempting to knock down the baby gate to flee the area. So, the morning wasn't great. Then, tonight we had another baseball game to go to. When we arrived home, Boris had completely demolished the baby gate that blocks him in. I angrily took him and Fillmore outside.
Savannah was asking me if Ellie was supposed to have a bar of soap in her cage.
What?
"Does Stacey put that in there to keep it smelling fresh?" she wondered.
"I doubt it. Does it look like your soap from the tub?"
"Yes."
Super.
We got Ellie and Sophie outside and Savannah pulled out the bar of soap.

Maybe she said some bad words when she was barking at the neighbors earlier? And had to punish herself?

So my tally is:
Number of dogs: 4
Number of poops in the house: 4
Number of pees in the house: 1
Number of barfs in the house: 1
Number of possible potty mouths: 1

Adventures in Doggysitting -- Day Two

2011-06-17T07:33:00.000-07:00

Number of dogs in my house: 4
Number of poops in my house: 3

We are starting to get a good routine going and the dogs have all made themselves at home. Ellie might be part mountain goat since I keep finding her perched on places I didn't think she could jump up onto, or at least places my own dogs have never ventured.

I had to venture upstairs to tend to our rodent pets and when I returned to the main level, there was a surprise poop on the middle of the living room floor. It was small, so Boris was in the clear. However, he wasn't certain it didn't belong to him, so he hung his head in shame and headed to his bed. I pointed my finger at Fillmore and said, "Did you do this pooper?" He put his ears back and looked guilty. I pointed my finger at Ellie and said, "Did you do this pooper?" She also put her ears down and looked guilty. Then, I turned to Sophie and asked the same question. She wagged her tail at me. The most senior dog of the group is definitely the wisest. She knew I didn't see it happen, so it could have been anybody. "I admit nothing." She strutted out of the room leaving me to my poop picking up duties.

Dogs.

On another subject, I went to Walmart last night to grab some things for dinner. And I also grabbed myself a margarita mix. When I got up to check out, I pulled out my wallet knowing that I would be asked for my ID. I always am. Cursed with looking younger than my actual age. I am always told, "I would never have guessed you to be this old!" after a cashier looks at my drivers license. This used to be highly annoying, but I have reached the age where I relish it.
But, yesterday, when the Walmart cashier rang up my alcohol, the register prompts her with a question: Does customer appear over the age of 40? The cashier looks up at me and says, "Oh, you're DEFINITELY over the age of 40!"
WHAT?
"No, I'm not." I said to her.
"Well, I'd guess you to be. So, we'll go with it." She smiles at me.

I went home and drank my sorrows away. Sensing my depression, the dogs refrained from pooping in the house any more that night.

Adventures in Dogsitting -- Day One

2011-06-15T13:43:00.000-07:00

We have a couple of house guests for about a week or so.

Sophie

and Ellie
I was worried that my own 2 furry monsters would be less than gracious hosts, but everyone is getting along famously.

Our guests arrived yesterday afternoon and the dogs all came in the house like they were old friends. I was worried that the 2 house guests might get homesick at night and bark or whine all night long. Nope. They slept happily.

I'm still working out the logistics of getting 4 dogs out in the morning (or any other time of day) since we don't have a fence.

I have been taking the guests out first and coming back for my 2 mongrels. So far so good, until this morning. Apparently the 20 second wait was too much for Boris, who deposited his morning poop in the back porch.

NOT GREAT!

After everyone came back in, I had to feed Ellie. (Ellie in the morning, Boris and Fillmore in the afternoon, and Sophie in the evening. We have a strict schedule to adhere to.) Ellie followed Boris's cue and left me a present in the kitchen, too. OOPS.

This afternoon, I got home from work and the kids had kept the dogs alive and well all day long. And no doggie presents were left for me anywhere in the house. Yay!

Ellie has made herself so at home, that when she needs a treat, she just helps herself. I thought if I put them up on the kitchen table, they'd be safe. But, someone thinks she can outsmart me.

Hmmm. Perhaps the staircase of garage sale stuff placed next to the table needs to be re-stacked.

Here is Boris after seeing Ellie on the table. His look is telling me that he told her not to go up there. (And, yes, that is Fillmore in the background being impolite. Many butts have been sniffed in the past 24 hours.)
Tonight, Myles had a baseball game and we thought we'd take Ellie along. She was very fun. She sat on an Arlington Eagles seat and cheered on the boys.

All that baseball watching sure does take a toll on a girl.

Dogsitting Day One = a success!

Strawberry Jammin'

2011-06-07T05:51:00.000-07:00

I've been reading The Wilder Life by Wendy McClure and it has really gotten me in the Little House on the Prairie mood. The book chronicles the authors love of the Little House books and her experiences traveling to the different Laura Ingalls homesteads. She also shares her desire to churn butter. With an actual butter churn. I have to admit, I sort of want to do it too.
But instead, I made homemade jam for the first time in my life. And I think it was a success. A sort of expensive success, but a success none the less.
This whole adventure was inspired when my local grocery store had a humungous package of strawberries on sale. A one day only sale. So I bought some, asked my mom to borrow her canner, and went shopping for some cans. That's when I discovered the cost of cans. Holy cow! I was only making jam, but I was imagining myself canning tomatoes and whatever else I could grow in the garden this summer. But, yikes! The initial investment to get going would be a bit large.
So, I settled for a small 4 pack of squat little jars for my jam. I found the jars the day after I bought my strawberries. That afternoon after arriving home from work with my new jars in hand, I found a strawberry right in the middle of the strawberries completely covered in furry mold.
CRAP!
I plucked that one out and a few of it's neighbors and went in search of a jam recipe. I had forgotten to get the pectin. So, on day 3 of the strawberries life in my house, I was finally prepared to make some jam.
But, I learned that day, that it's best to store your strawberries in the refrigerator. My recipe told me I needed 5 cups of mashed fruit. I opened my strawberry package to discover that yesterday's mold had somehow taken over the entire pack of strawberries. I couldn't salvage even one little berry.
Figuring I was going to have to go out and purchase more strawberries, I called my mom to whine. She took pity on me and offered up one of her packages of strawberries.
Thanks mom!
Jam was back on.
So, here's the process:
Clutter up your stove with all your needed pots and tools.

Enjoy the aroma of the strawberries.Cut up the strawberries on your new cutting board made by your dad.
Here is the boiling of the mashed up fruit and sugar and pectin. Starting to look like jam.
And here is an example of the steam facial you will enjoy if you attempt this. The humidity I had created in the kitchen during this process gave my hair a crazy frizziness. Savannah and I headed out to the library after I was done and I had asked her if my hair was ok. "Sure," she told me, eager to get out the door before the library closed. Upon my return to our house, I caught my reflection in the glass front door. Medusa is the only way I can describe what was happening on my head.
And the jam:

Merriment, Madness, Mayhem, and Memorial Day

2011-05-31T08:00:00.000-07:00

Lucky for me, I had a long holiday weekend. With all the stuff we had planned, I needed it. I was still dealing with my giant bug bite blister, which had caused me a week of not sleeping very well. Woe is me.

Anyway, Friday night we did some prep work. Savannah and I were going to the Taylor Swift concert the next night and she was working on a t-shirt to wear to the show. She and her cousins had been developing a plan to get themselves invited to the T-Party room. They found out that during Taylor's last tour she had some special room that some fans would get invited to where they would get to meet Taylor. This elaborate plan included homemade t-shirts, huge handmade posters, and dozens of glowing bracelets and necklaces. This strategy was a sure bet, they thought.On our way to Stacey's house we spotted these 2 beautiful creatures walking on the side of the road. I have never seen white peacocks before. Really cool. We took that as a sign of amazing things to come.So, we made it to the concert. My humongous blister had already begun seeping fluid before we even got there. I was a little worried about taking it out into such a crowded place, but there was no leaving it at home. I slapped the world's largest piece of gauze over it, and we soldiered on. The t-shirt line (or should I say mob) took us about 45 minutes to get through. And then we had to climb Mt. Everest to find our seats. (Third row from the top.) But, once we were settled, things went pretty smoothly. The concert was amazing. Taylor really did put on an amazing show. Very theatrical. And the 3 girls to my left, with their glowing arms and posters waving high, were very fun companions. And the 5 college boys sitting to my right included one seriously hard-core fan who belted out every single song (while his friend kept covertly video-ing him exactly what I would have done), were amusing as well.

Unfortunately, the night did not end with an invitation to the T-Party room. We weren't sure if she was still having the T-Party room, but if she did, she missed out on meeting some very devoted fans. To top off this story of disappointment, Savannah had convinced herself that there was no T-Party room on this tour and had gotten herself over the disappointment. Until yesterday when our local small town paper arrived. There was a small article in there about a local group of probably college aged guys that had been asked back to a special room to meet Taylor Swift after her concert. The outrage here was this:

1) They were boys
2) They had a handmade poster, but it was far inferior to Savannah's and her cousins.
3) They weren't wearing homemade fan t-shirts nor were they covered in glowing bracelets and necklaces.

4) They were pictured in our hometown paper instead of Savannah!

So that's a big bummer.

On to Monday, Memorial Day, when I woke up with a sore throat and a general crummy feeling. I was achy and sort of feeling flu-like. Not great. So, I took some medicine and got up. This was my only real day to catch up on things around the house and I wasn't about to spend it whining on the couch. (I'd spend it whining, just not while laying on the couch.) I was starting to get a little concerned because I was still dealing with my giant bug bite blister and had read online that it could get infected with Staph, which is very dangerous, and if I started getting chills and running a fever, I'd better see a doctor QUICK.
I got up and took a shower and my blister started to drip, and drip, and drip. Gross! So, I was dabbing at it with a tissue and started to get very nauseous feeling. (I'm not very tough, if you couldn't guess.) So, after a few minutes of deflating my blister I decided I'd better go lay down before I barfed. A few minutes spent laying on the couch and I figured I'd be just fine.
Don't barf.
Don't barf.
Don't barf.
The mantra kept running through my head.
Then, Boris the great dane, must have gotten nervous about my condition which resulted in a giant great dane poop in the hallway. What calms the stomach of a very nauseous person? It's not the overpowering aroma of dog poop, that's for sure.
The rest of my day involved several surprise run ins with snakes in the yard, while trying to plant some new summer plants I had purchased. One of which is supposed to ward off mosquitoes. And if it works, I'll likely be weaving clothing out of it. And for our Memorial Day dinner, I was determined to grill out some ribs.
Where was our grill? Buried in the shed. Behind the mower, under the hose reel and wedged into place behind a tossed rake and shovel. (and likely surrounded by snakes.) So, I made Myles help me get it out.
After we cleaned it, I made my aluminum foil pan and filled it with my soaked wood chips set up the charcoal, the instant light variety, and grabbed my lighter. Surprise, surprise. The lighter is out of fluid. Rather than drive all the way into the nearest city, we opted to go down to the gas station and purchase a cigarette lighter.

But, guess what?
Instant light charcoal doesn't instant light. Especially when there are 40 mph winds to contend with. So, with the help of my 2 kids holding up the grill lid to block my wind and the aid of the lighter fluid I was instructed not to use by the instant light charcoal bag, we managed to get a fire going. It only took about 500 tries. But, here is our glorious Memorial Day feast:

We love our baby back, baby back, baby back. We love our baby back, baby back, baby back.
RIBS!!!

P.S. Don't you love my Wonder Woman glass?

Waving My Freak Flag

2011-05-22T19:42:00.000-07:00

Well, my summer is off to a slammin' start. I have gained a healthy chub over the winter. So, none, and I'm serious here, none of my shorts fit me. Not a single pair.
Oh, well. Who needs to be skinny for the summer anyway, right?
So, I've been trying to accumulate some summer shorts and pants to accommodate my new girth. Lesson learned here: It's much more fun to shop for clothes when you aren't going UP a size.
Swimsuits -- I'm not even going there. Unless Spanx is making some sort of magical surfer body suit kind of swimwear.

Last Thursday, I was attacked by a hungry flock of mosquitoes. I am apparently allergic to mosquitoes and the bites turned into giant enflamed blood red bruises, with one super special bite that turned into an enormous blister. The blister has grown so big that I'm considering naming it. And drawing a face on it.
My signature scent for the summer -- Deep Woods Off.

Today, Myles had a double header. The weather wasn't too bad. The wind was a little chilly and the clouds kept passing by so I didn't feel like I was being baked. Unfortunately, this kept me from realizing that the evil sun's rays were barbecuing my skin. But, since I have this hideous looking pustule on my leg, my left leg was kept low to avoid the "Holy Crap! What's wrong with you?" reactions it would bring. But, my right leg was proudly propped up on the bleacher seat in front of me.
So, I now have legs that look like this:
Sunburned knee and sunburned top o' the foot. That will be an awesome looking tan. And those two marks below the sunburn, those are 2 of the mosquito bite bruises.
And the blister:

I may be spending this summer indoors.

Put on a Happy Face

2011-04-14T15:16:00.000-07:00

I woke up with the worst headache on Tuesday morning.
THE WORST!
I was nauseous, my head was pounding, and I overslept. So, our morning was forced into hyper-speed. Hyper-speed mornings involve a lot of stress, yelling, rushing, and pressure. Not a great combination on a headache morning.
Savannah's 4th grade class is having a special "theme" for each day left in the school year. Some of them are dress up days, some are bring something days, others are just extra recess days or game days. Tuesday was Cast Day. So, they could come to school with a cast or crutches or something to make them look injured. I tried digging around in my box of childhood things looking for my sling from my broken arm. I couldn't find it. We went to walmart to see if slings are sold there. They are, but they cost $12. I wasn't willing to spend $12 for something that would probably be worn for around 5 minutes, even though Savannah thought it would be a reasonable investment. We ended up deciding to use a piece of fabric at home and make our own sling.
Then, Tuesday morning arrived and all the rushing and pressure. Suddenly in the light of the morning, our homemade sling seemed completely ridiculous to Savannah. There was no way she was going to wear it. I had to talk her down from tears and try to convince her that if cast day was a bust for her, we'd make another upcoming theme day the best. I'm not sure it made her feel any better, but we were late and it was the best I could do with a pounding head.
After dropping the kids at school, I made it to work. Part way down the hallway to my desk, I discovered that the shoes I had chosen to wear were making "shoe fart" noises with every single step I took.
Pfffhhhhttthththt
Pffhhhhhttthththt
Pffhhhhththththt
Pffhhhththththtt
Super!
If I walked very slowly and only stepped on the inside of my right foot and the outside of my left foot, I could avoid the fart. I looked like I had some sort of severe leg cramp, but the feet were quiet.
The head was still pounding, though. And I was reminded how much Excel spreadsheets don't help headaches.
I somehow survived the day, made it home with the kids, and immediately laid down on the couch to try to nap away this horrendous headache. I had to block out any light that was trying to get into my eyes, so I must have placed my arm over my eyes to block it out.
Unfortunately my extremely unsympathetic dogs cared only for their hungry stomachs and whined for the entire hour I tried to nap.
Uggggggghhhhh!
I got up dealt with the dogs, and took Myles to his baseball practice. Once his practice was over we ran over to Walmart for some groceries. I spent the rest of the evening doing some work and making a jello salad for a work food day on Wednesday.
Around midnight I went into the bathroom to brush my teeth and get ready for bed. That's when I glanced up into the mirror and saw the disaster that was my face. Apparently, during my very brief nap, my mascara had run all down the left side of my face. And my right eye was highlighted by a large black blob underneath it.
And that's how I'd been looking all night long!
Talking with baseball parents, shopping at walmart. Not pretty.
Did anyone clue me in to the disaster that was my face?
NOPE.

Springtime!!

2011-04-07T20:10:00.000-07:00

We are finally feeling like spring is really here. I've been noticing the daffodils in my neighbor's yard and we have tulips coming up! So, to get into the springtime spirit we made some birdseed feeders to hang around the yard. And they have an Easter theme to make them extra Spring-y. Here's the very quick and easy instructions: Mix together: 3/4 cup flour 1/2 cup water 1 envelope of unflavored gelatin 3 Tbsp corn syrup Then, to this mixture add: 4 cups of birdseed Mix this up thoroughly. Line a cookie sheet with parchment or wax paper. Then, spray the insides of some cute cookie cutters with non-stick spray and fill them up with the birdseed mixture. Be sure to pack it in really tight. I used a bamboo skewer to make the hole a little ways down from the top. Allow them to dry overnight. Add some twine for hanging. And viola! A lovely spring present for the little birdies. Of course, it rained all day today, so our birdies will be getting their presents tomorrow. I'm curious to see how many of our birdie presents are stolen by the crazy squirrels.

Granny Squares and Some Slaying

2011-04-05T16:38:00.001-07:00

Ok, I haven't written a blog in a while. I have developed an addiction. To Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I got a free month of Netflix and all 7 seasons of Buffy are on there. I never watched the show when it was on TV. Not once. Now, I can't stop. And this is really how I like my TV series. All at once. None of this waiting all summer long for a new season, no surprise reruns when I'm wanting a new episode. It's fantastic. It's been a little over a week and I've made it into season 3. As a bonus, Savannah has learned some pretty vicious slayer moves that she has tested out on me. I guess she gets to be the slayer and I get to be either one of her sidekicks or a vampire needing a slaying. And speaking of vicious slayings, this is what we found on our front sidewalk this weekend. Bad kitty! Ok, I have completed my granny squares into what will soon be joined and made into a pillow after I weave in all the ends from all those colors. (My least favorite part.) I'm very happy with the results. And I tried making a hex pattern this weekend too. I'm not sure what I'm going to turn it into, but something awesome for sure. I also whipped up these fantastic flower magnets during my Saturday of non-stop Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (Honestly, I haven't watched a regular TV show from this decade since last Thursday. And, because of that, we missed the Kids Choice Awards and I'm in some pretty hot water over that one. Luckily, Savannah's nearly as into the Buffy show as I am.) Anyway, our flower sprouts are growing and growing. So far I have no deaths to report. This might be a record for me. And I think I can see a pumpkin trying to poke up through the dirt. YAY! Ok, back to Buffy. Auf Wiedersehen!

Busy Weekend

2011-03-28T15:48:00.000-07:00

We had a very busy weekend in our house. Myles went to a sleepover on Friday night for his friend's birthday. Savannah and I spent our time crafting. She has a music program coming up this Thursday and has decided on a very special outfit to wear for the program.

Here it is:

She made a duct tape dress! It's entirely covered in duct tape. We used black duct tape to cover a cami and skirt she had, added the turquoise band to create an empire waist, and covered the bottom half with purple duct tape squares. We added a zipper to the back after realizing that duct tape has absolutely NO stretch to it. But, she is extremely pleased with the final result. She even made a duct tape purse to match.

And, I can guarantee that no one in the show will have the same dress on!

Saturday, I spent the majority of the day crocheting. I have regularly visited Lucy's blog Attic24 and it has only enhanced my crochet addiction. I saw her recent post for Hearts and Twigs and immediately had to replicate it. So, after a Saturday spent crocheting hearts and a Monday wrestling with fallen branches in my work's parking lot, here is my creation.

I love it. We'll see how long it takes my giant dog to knock it over with his giant tail.

Our last crafty project this weekend was making some paper mache newspaper nests. I had gotten this idea from the current Country Living magazine. We made our using the comics from the newspaper and I think the results are fabulous!

They were very easy to make all you have to do is cover a small bowl with plastic wrap and set it upside down on some wax paper. You then mix equal parts glue (we used Elmer's) and water. The magazine examples used old pages from a dictionary and brown lunch sacks. We used our paper shredder to shred our comics and then you just take a small handful of it and cover it with the glue mixture and set it on the plastic wrapped bowl. Keep adding more paper until your bowl is completely covered and then let it sit. Ours took about 24 hours to dry completely. But, they look really cute with some plastic eggs in them for Easter or some really yummy Easter chocolates. I think we are going to try making some more with the brown lunch sacks. But first, I'm baking a chocolate sheet cake.

Oh Yeah!

2011-03-23T19:40:00.000-07:00

I finished!! I have a new blankie. I had one as a little girl and I loved it very very much. It was a great companion and if I went somewhere, so did my blankie. I sucked my thumb, too. Picture a female Linus. But, it was taken away from me much like the woobie was taken from the kid in Mr. Mom.

Anyway, I have a new blankie and I made it myself! I may have to curl up under it and watch some Smurfs cartoons and really relive my childhood.

Here it is:

And, yesterday we were lucky enough to get our first thunderstorm of the season. And it happened right after school, too. Myles is obsessed with severe weather and tornadoes and was following the storm closely on the TV and online. Then, we went outside to watch the storm on our front porch. (The front porch is where you are supposed to go when in a tornado watch, right?)

Of course tomorrow night we are supposed to get snow, so spring is already taking a little vacation. Spring is a slacker.

And my other exciting news ... I have my first little flower sprouts!

If I can keep them alive, I'll post more pictures as they grow.

Happy First Day Of Spring!!

2011-03-20T09:54:00.000-07:00

Well, our first day of spring is rather gloomy looking. It's really cloudy outside. But it is supposed to get up to 70 degrees today, so no complaints here. The supermoon happened last night, too. But, again too cloudy for us to see.

Since this weekend contained our first day of spring, we decided to start some seeds in our kitchen. It's very exciting. And it'll be even more exciting if I can remember to water all these little cups and actually get something to grow. Fingers crossed. My kitchen has been transformed into a makeshift greenhouse. We have started zinnias, sunflowers (2 varieties), asters, white pumpkins, some variety pack of pumpkins and squash, and a white squash. I want to start some watermelons too. Yet another year of attempting to replicate our patermelons. They were fabulous!!! Outside looked like a pumpkin, inside smelled like a watermelon. I will be patenting them!

Our squash was started a few weeks ago as part of Myles's science fair project. So, it's a little ahead of the rest.

This weekend I also tried out my first dessert from my new Gooseberry Patch cookbook.

Myles has requested the salty peanut bars. They are a lot like those salty nut rolls that are so yummy at the grocery store. These turned out good. They are definitely not a diet dessert, but is there such thing? I keep cutting very skinny little pieces for myself. I figure if I just eat a tiny little piece it's not so bad. But, I realized that 8 to 10 tiny little pieces starts to add up. Between all the desserts in this cookbook and all the girl scout cookies I've consumed, my winter flab is here to stay. Stupid yummy food.

My exercise plan has included a lot of sitting and crocheting lately. How many calories are burned while working with yarn? 2-3 calories an hour? And in order to keep my energy levels up I seem to crave 500 calorie snacks every 30 minutes, so I may have to rethink my workout regimen. Hmmmm.

But, during my latest workout session, I created my very first granny square. Granny squares and Japanese flower motifs have become my latest obsession.

And, if I'm going to mass produce granny squares, I'm going to need some yarn. So...

I'll be working out a lot.

Happiest Dog in the World!!

2011-03-13T19:51:00.000-07:00

I saw a blog post giving me the idea to make my own dog toys. I learned that at Petsmart, you can buy packages of just squeakers.

JUST SQUEAKERS!!!

Now, let me preface this story with a little explanation of what my little dog, Fillmore, is like with a toy containing a squeaker. He is a dog on a mission. As soon as he gets a new toy with a squeaker, it becomes his mission in life to get that squeaker out. He chews the squeaker until I am on the brink of insanity. He inevitably creates a hole in the toy, pulls out all of the stuffing usually leaving a mess from one end of the house to the other, and finally gets his reward. We are then treated to a show like no other. He will toss the freed squeaker in the air and catch it. He'll lay it on the ground and roll around on it. Chase it. Growl at it. Set it in front of me to tease me with it. Basically, he loses his cool over squeakers. It's highly amusing.

So, when I told the kids that we could get a package of just squeakers, we all got evil grins on our faces at just the idea of raining bunches of squeakers down on Fillmore's head. He would likely explode from excitement. We felt quite certain that this might equate to winning the lottery for our crazy little Fillmore.

So, we sewed up some dog toys. Savannah took 2 extra squeakers downstairs to Fillmore who had been waiting at the foot of the stairs, shaking with anticipation. He could hear us squeaking those squeakers in Savannah's room while we were working and when Savannah got tired of stuffing our new dog toys, she decided the moment had come to give Fillmore his squeakers.

She was squeaking them in her hands as she went down the stairs, all the while Fillmore's tail is wagging so violently we thought it might break off. She puts her hands out over his head squeaks the squeakers one last time and drops them.

Fillmore looks down at the ground, then back up at Savannah, and sits down.

"What the hell am I supposed to do with that?" was our interpretation of his expression.

She stepped on the squeaker to squeak it again. He perked up his ears, but looked back at the squeaker and left the room.

What a let down. I guess the reward of chewing the squeaker out of the toy is what makes the squeaker so appealing. So we finished our dog toys and gave him one of those. This is him playing with it. (And, that's a belly band he's wearing. He has a proclivity for peeing on things in the house he feels he needs to claim for his own. We made them pink to punish him for this terrible habit.)

I tried to get a picture of him with the toys before he tore them apart, but he was going so crazy that all of my pictures of him are blurry. Honestly, I don't think anyone has enjoyed something I made as much as Fillmore has enjoyed these toys.

Wee Little Leprechaun

2011-03-13T19:39:00.000-07:00

We have a nightly visitor to our house. Her name is Maeve and she is a leprechaun. She had been visiting us nightly and she and Savannah were having a pen pal relationship for a while about a year ago. The nightly letter writing got to be a bit much for Savannah and she hadn't been in touch with her for a while. Until Savannah got a little leprechaun kit. It came with a little book and a little leprechaun.

Savannah was inspired to get back in touch with Maeve as well as to create a special home for her to rest in when she stops by. This is her amazing creation.

She crafted up a ladder to assist Maeve in getting up on top of the coffee table. She also left out some cheerios in case she needs a snack.

Her letter to Maeve was left in the pink mailbox.

I'm just hoping that Maeve decides to leave her a pot of gold. And convinces Savannah that corned beef and cabbage is a very delicious meal. :)

Who's up for a Happy Meal?

2011-03-07T14:07:00.000-08:00

The kids were off school today for a teacher's in service day. I had to work, but I always ask them if they want me to bring anything home for them when I'm on my way home. Like usual, they were hungry, but unsure of what they wanted. (This question usually means "What can I get you from the grocery store?" not, "What drive thru do you prefer?")

So, this is the face I came home to.

I think she was trying to tell me something.

Happy Meal anyone?

A New Quick Crochet Project!

2011-03-05T08:47:00.000-08:00

I made these cute little crochet arm bands or bracelets or cuff. I'm not sure what I want to call them. But, honestly, these take less than an hour to make. I love a quick project and the finished result is really great. Here's what the first one looks like:

So, my color choice in yarn may be a bit fall-like, but I think there is enough green in there to work for St. Patrick's Day too.

Here is the pattern:

Crochet Cuff:

CH 5

1. In 2nd CH from hook SC, in next CH do a DC, then SC in next CH, and DC in last CH

2. CH 1, turn. In last DC from previous row, do a SC. In next stitch (SC from previous row) do a DC, then a SC in next stitch, and DC in last stitch.

3. Repeat step 2 until you've reached desired length -- ends should just barely overlap when wrapped around your wrist.

4. CH 3, turn. SK 1st DC, TRC in 1st SC (2nd stitch) and in each of next 2 stitches.

5. CH 1, turn. SC in each of the 3 TRC and 1 SC in top of turning CH. Fasten off.

6. Sew on a coordinating button & weave in the ends.

Viola. You now have an adorable cuff! (I think I've decided on calling it a cuff now.) Here's the second one I've made and not quite finished.

Savannah has already requested one. And since they are really so quick, I'll probably make a bunch.

Cootie Monster at the Bookstore

2011-03-03T14:59:00.000-08:00

Ok, today I thought I would stop in at Borders on my way home from work today. I have been searching for the new Flea Market Style magazine and haven't been able to find it. Surely Borders will have it, I thought.
I was really surprised while looking for it at Borders because their magazine racks are surprisingly bare. I mean really really bare. Is this the current state of the magazine world? If so, it's very sad. Unfortunately, it directly parallels the state of my current finances, so I can't do much about it.
Anyway, I located the magazine, grabbed it and headed back to the craft book section. Honestly, there were only about 5 people shopping in the store while I was there. It was mid afternoon and not a busy time. But, of those 5 people, there was one really special lady shopping near me. I noticed her sitting on the floor in the music books section. Since there was nearly nobody in the store, when she pulled out her cell phone and started talking to someone, I could hear the whole conversation.

Here's what I heard:

Lady: "Hey, do you remember those sores I had all over my hands?" Pause. "Yeah, well they spread EVERYWHERE."

Me: What? Did I just hear her correctly?

Lady: "I went to the doctor about it and he said it was impetigo." Pause. "I know I had that as a kid too. Anyway, he said that it's EXTREMELY contagious and I could have caught it just from being near someone that had it. It's really really bad."

Me: Is this a joke? I tried to peek over the shelves to see if she was trying to be funny, but I couldn't see her. Do people really have these conversations over the cell phone in public?

Lady: "I am seriously so itchy!" Pause. "I'm at the bookstore. I wanted to go out shopping."

Me: As quickly as possible I dropped everything in my hands and hightailed it out of there.

Seriously? Was she seriously discussing her current highly contagious skin sores while casually shopping for books? All the while contaminating everything she touched?
I raced out to my car, pulled out the hand sanitizer, and bathed in it. Then, while driving home, I got an itchy feeling on my right hand.
Paranoia, I think. But, I'll let you know if I develop any sores.

Now I'm off to the kids' science fair where, hopefully, my sores and I won't become the subject of study.

Crafternoon

2011-03-02T18:10:00.001-08:00

I got home from work and picking the kids up from school this afternoon and felt a little crafty. I have a few things that I've been wanting to try, so this afternoon I gave one a whirl.

It's a pincushion ring.

I saw these on Alma Stoller. So hop on over there for the tutorial. They are pretty quick and easy and so darn adorable!

In other news, we are now down one box of girl scout cookies and the others are dwindling. It won't be long before we are seeking out the girl scouts at the local grocery stores. Why you gotta make your cookies so yummy, girl scouts?

Double Chin Mints

2011-03-01T21:11:00.001-08:00

Guess what will be consuming my every waking thought for the next few days? That's right. Girl Scout Cookies.

It happens every year. Every single year.

I don't feel overcome with anxiety and impatience when I place the order. Nope. They are just cookies. And once I hear that they are in, I'm still not a cookie maniac. But, once I have opened up that first box, that's when the trouble begins. Some sort of cookie monster gas escapes the box the moment it's opened and it takes over your brain. Cookie crumbs collect in your lap as all hopes of a springtime diet fly out the window.

They are just so yummy. What do those girl scouts do to those cookies? I mean seriously. Look at that cookie.

It's

Just

That

Delicious.

I am trying to summon up some will power, but the cookies are a short lived treat. They disappear much too quickly. And I live with 2 piggy chomper children. I have to snarf them up as quick as possible just to ensure that I get any at all.

I have 7 boxes. They've all been opened. And they'll all be gone by the weekend.

It's My Birthday!

2011-02-28T14:11:00.000-08:00

I'm officially 36 years old today. Hooray for me! My birthday has gone pretty well. I woke up this morning and Boris, my Great Dane, hadn't left me any presents in the house. (He's been leaving me presents in the house all winter long, but today he refrained.) Then, when I got to work this morning, the computers were all down.

Heh heh heh. Birthday wishes -- granted.

Now this afternoon, I'm going to continue to work on my afghan. I've become addicted to crocheting lately and I'm currently working on an afghan. I got inspired by the colors in a quilt that my mom made for Savannah.

Very pretty! I had started out with the turquoise, thinking I was going to make it all one color. But, while I was working on it, I noticed that the turquoise matched the quilt's coloring and it would be better and brighter if I added on some green and orange. Today I bought some purple, but I don't like it and it's going back. I think I'll judge the size after the orange to determine if I'm going to add another color or not.

I'm working in a sideways shell stitch that is perfectly mindless for me. I think the thing I love about crocheting is that I can sit down and work on it without having to think too much. It's very relaxing.

Now, the fun part is changing colors. And today, on my birthday, I finally get to start the orange! Yay!

(Ok, I realize that I may need to get a life if the highlight of my birthday is changing colors in my crochet, but hey -- I take my excitement where I can get it.)

I'll post pictures as this project progresses. And, if I'm really lucky, I'll get a rocking chair for my birthday and then my granny-ness will be complete.

Crafting Up Some Luck!

2011-02-27T12:56:00.000-08:00

It's been a very gloomy weekend here. It snowed on Friday. Was gray and gloomy yesterday and that gloom is hanging on today. What does that mean? It means I needs me some crafty fun. So, yesterday I taught myself (with a little help from YouTube) how to crochet a shamrock. I made several out of several different types of yarn. But, I liked the lime green shamrocks I made from Sugar and Cream yarn the best. So, I made a few more. Now, what to do with them?

Well, I made a cute little Lucky Shamrock wall hanging. And they were very easy.

The first thing to do is crochet up some shamrocks. Go to the web or YouTube, there are lots of tutorials out there. Find one you like and can make sense of and crochet away.

Then I took squares of fleece, cut to a good size to fit around your shamrock. (The shamrock's will vary in size depending on your choice in yarn.) You will need 2 squares of the fleece for each wall hanging.

Next, find a button that you like that is larger than the hold in the center of your shamrock. Then, just sew on the button. As long as the button is larger than the shamrock's hole, it will hold the shamrock on. I sewed mine on with green embroidery floss.

Now, it's on to the sewing machine. I cut some lengths of matching lime green grosgrain ribbon and sewed a loop onto the back square of fleece. I'm sure this could be made to look prettier, but I prefer simplicity and quickness so, I just stitched straight across the ribbon and back. It'll be against the wall, so who's going to see it anyway? Right?

Oh, and I did go back and cut those ends at an angle so they wouldn't fray.

Using a 6/8" seam allowance, and with some lucky green thread, sewed the outer outline with just a straight stitch.

Then, I came back and sewed another outline just inside of the first one. Be sure when you are sewing the outlines that you keep in mind where your ribbon loop is so that you don't catch it while you are sewing your outlines.

The last step is just to snip some fringes into the outer edge all the way around. And. Viola. You have stitched up some cute lucky Irish decorations!

Oh so tired....

2011-02-26T11:27:00.000-08:00

Savannah came home this morning from a birthday slumber party last night. Her eyes were glassy. She had a sniffle.

"How much sleep did you get?" I asked her.
"Only 30 minutes," she told me, proudly.

She stumbled into the living room and sat down at her computer and played online for about 5 minutes. Then, she got hungry. So, I fed her some Eggo waffles. She scarfed them down, which likely used up her final amount of reserved energy.

She sat next to me on the couch and quickly crumpled up into a sleepy ball. I put her pillow under her head and covered her with a blanket. And here she lies several hours later, while Myles is not so patiently waiting for her to wake up so we can go to Gamestop.

By the way, if anyone tells Savannah that I posted another picture of her sleeping online, I'm dead. So mum's the word. :)

A Bad End of the Week

2011-02-19T12:51:00.000-08:00

The stomach flu hit our house this week. It was horrible, as it always is. And, to add to the horror of it all, it ended a 4 year long vomit-free streak for Savannah. That's right folks, she hadn't puked since she was 5! Dang it.

Savannah and I were feeling pretty miserable on Wednesday night and for a good portion of Thursday. But, by Thursday afternoon, I was really starting to feel a lot better. So much so, that I thought making the homemade granola that I've been dying to make all week should be done immediately. I'll add the recipe at the end of this story.

I mixed up all of the ingredients (it makes a lot) and spread it out on 2 rimmed cookie sheets, just as instructed. It then has to roast in the oven for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Unfortunately, it didn't occur to me that baking granola in the oven for 2 hours while there are still people in the house that would rather not be smelling delicious baking. Oops. I was given tortured looks for the entire time and Savannah eventually gave up her spot on the couch to retreat to her room and watch a movie just to avoid the smell.

Well, after the granola came out, I had to let it cool completely before storing it in an airtight container. So, I mounded up the contents of both sheets onto one and left it on the counter in the kitchen to cool. Then, I went upstairs to sit with Savannah and watch Curious George.

I came downstairs a short while later and could hear a strange rustling sound coming from the kitchen.

What could that be?

I walk into the kitchen only to discover my great dane, Boris, with both of his feet up on the counter and his face deep in the tray of granola.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?" I screamed at him.

He quickly dropped to the ground and high-tailed it out of the kitchen, licking his lips the whole way.

This is the remains of my delicious granola. I only got to sample just a tiny little bit. :(

This is the mess he left me to clean up off of the floor:

And this is the bad dog laying on his bed with a belly full of granola. (and, honestly, he's not looking guilty enough for my liking)

To top off my not great day, I got Savannah to sleep that night, and right around midnight, Myles got the barfs, too.
Woe is me.

However, today I remade the granola. I put a baby gate up to block Boris from entering the kitchen. He was watching me intently as I mixed up the granola and put it on the cookie sheets. I know his dumb great dane brain was thinking I was making him another batch of yumminess. So far, I've kept him out of it. Ha. (I do get a sense of satisfactions when I am able to outsmart a dumb dog.)

Here is the recipe if anyone wants to make their own granola or a delicious treat for their dog.

Homemade Granola

1 lb rolled oats
1/2 c slivered almonds
1 c coconut
1/4 c sesame seeds
1/2 c wheat germ
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c safflower oil
1/2 c honey
1/3 c water
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 250 degrees.

In a large bowl, toss together oats, coconut, almonds, sesame seeds, wheat germ and salt. Separately whisk together the oil, honey, water, and vanilla. Stir it into the oat mixture.

Spread onto 2 rimmed baking sheets. Bake for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Stir after 10 minutes and then again 30 minutes later. Cool completely and store in airtight container. Be sure to monitor the location of your pets while the cooling process is happening.

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

2011-02-14T05:11:00.001-08:00

Guess where we went last night?

The show was so incredible. We especially loved the Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious number (I can now spell and sing that song, much to the dismay of the kids) and the Step In Time number. In the Step In Time number, Bert actually tap dances his way up the wall and across the ceiling (way up at the top of the stage) . It was incredible. The whole play was really magical. When Mary Poppins first enters the children's room and sets her bag down, she starts pulling things out of that bag and even I couldn't figure out how she was doing it. I think Mary Poppins had some real magic going on.

Savannah got her Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious shirt, which she will be wearing on Wednesday to the spelling bee, and promptly put it on in the theater. Myles got a cool chimney sweep pen that I'm a little jealous of.

It was a late night, but definitely worth it. If you get the chance to go see Mary Poppins, I highly recommend it.

Some Big Exciting News...

2011-02-06T07:42:00.001-08:00

This has been a very exciting end of the week for us. Savannah had won the 4th grade spelling bee at her elementary school a couple of weeks ago. Then, on Thursday she participated in her elementary school's spelling bee competing against the winners of the 5th and 6th grade bees. Guess what? She came in as runner up. So, that means she goes on to the Washington County Spelling Bee in a couple of weeks. This is super exciting and I'm a very proud mama.

To make that Thursday even more perfect, I had bought myself a Schlotzsky's sandwich for lunch after work. I am partial to the original sandwich and rarely get one, so it was a delightful treat.

Yum!

Of course, when I got off work, I had to race over there and then race back to Arlington to pick up the kids, all the while attempting to eat my sandwich and drive at the same time. This was the result:

Slight lap disaster.

This weekend has been a bit of a crafty one for us. Savannah was browsing the Michaels website and found this project for making a paper wreath. I really liked it and looked to see what materials would be needed. We were heading to Michaels anyway, so why not pick up stuff for one extra project.

Materials needed: a 36 page book of double-sided scrapbooking paper, staples, tape, hot glue gun, and half of a styrofoam ball. The only thing I didn't already have was the scrapbooking paper. Lucky for us, we found a book of Amy Butler papers on clearance for only $3.99!

To make this wreath, you have to tear each sheet out of the booklet and trim off the top edge so that you are left with a square piece of paper. Then, you roll the paper into a cone, use tape to secure, and put a staple in the bottom to create a flattened surface to glue onto the wreath circle.

After making about 10 of these cones, Savannah comes into the rooms and declares, "That is going to be HUGE!"

Hmmm. It does seem rather large now that I look at it. So, I go back to the website, and guess what? The papers are supposed to be 8.5 inch squares. I'm using 12 inch squares. Oh, well.

So, I continue on and finally completed the project last night. I glued all the cones into a circle, finished it off with the half styrofoam ball covered in buttons, and VIOLA...

One Huge Paper Wreath.

Even though it turned out gigantic, I still think it's cool. I hung it up in her room and it takes up one entire wall, but it's still one of the most awesome wreaths I have ever made.

Snow Days...

2011-02-02T15:55:00.000-08:00

I guess almost everyone is having them right now. The kids were out of school for the past 2 days and I even got to stay home yesterday. I wanted to stay home today as well, but work won out and I had to go in. Stupid almighty dollar.

Even though it was the day after the storm, I still had to drive through these kinds of conditions.

I got home this afternoon and was showing Myles the pictures. He says, "Great, Mom. So, when the driving gets scary, you rummage through your purse for your camera?"

Um, yes. So, watch out everybody.

Yesterday, however, was completely glorious. The kids and I never got out of our jammies. Myles spent most of the day playing on his xbox. There were some new maps for his Black Ops game that became available yesterday so those monopolized all of his time. Long gone are the days of him asking me to help him get to the next level of a Mario game. Now we don't even like the same games. Boo.

Savannah was having fun playing online and chatting with her pal, Shoo Rayner. He is an illustrator and is so kind to the kids on YouTube. Savannah will ask him to draw something and he will post a video on how it's done. Very cool.

I, however, spent most of the day with my butt firmly planted on the couch. It was a day full of crocheting and crappy TV watching.

A small burst of energy hit around dinner time, so instead of cooking something up for us all to eat, I made my lining for my Starling Bag. It turned out SO AWESOME.

If you want to try making one of these, go to futuregirl.com

Gettin my craft on

2011-01-31T15:10:00.000-08:00

Well, I've been getting a little crafty lately. It's been cold and snowy for a while and I needed a project. So, I took up crocheting. I've made a bunch of scarves and learned a bunch of different stitches that way. I also made the Starling Handbag that I found at Futuregirl. I have the crocheting of the bag finished, but not the lining, so pictures to come when it's totally complete. The bag is really not hard to make at all and turned out great.

This past weekend, I finished my first loopy stitch pillow. I found this pattern at Lion Brand Yarn and it was free.

I think it's really cool and so does Savannah as she's snatched it up to add to her collection of pillows.

Now, I need a new project. I plan on making a few more of those loopy pillows for myself, but today I spotted this blog post at Crafty Is Cool and I think I'm going to have to make a couple of these first.

Aren't they so cute? Lucky me, it looks like we are going to be having a snow day tomorrow, so I'll have plenty of time to make a couple.

Last night, while finishing up my loopy pillow I saw this tweet from Sarah Colonna "Am I really watching a Jennifer Love Hewitt/Betty White hallmark movie? This must be what rock bottom feels like."

Well, Sarah, I was also watching that hallmark movie and was crocheting at the same time and I'm only 35. I think I might have beat out your rock bottom. Granny-dom here I come!

Weekend Recap

2011-01-30T21:18:00.000-08:00

What a fun weekend this has been. On Friday night, I got to go to Savannah's Pizza Bingo Night at her elementary school. The kids get to play carnival games and bingo, enter a raffle for some great prizes, and eat pizza. The parents get to sit on the sidelines, wallets in hand. Also, we get to donate 2-liters of pop for the pop ring toss (only to spend approximately $5 later "winning" a different 2-liter of pop), candy bars for another carnival game prize (Savannah never won one of those and was none too happy about it). Our last required donation was a cake or 2 for the cake walk. I had bought a cake mix and a set of disposable foil square cake pans to make our cake in. We set to frosting our cakes and even went so far as to color some of the frosting and write "Pizza Bingo Night" on one cake and "Cake Walk" on the other as well as adding some very fancy flowers in the corners of the cakes.

After the decorating was done, we had some left over frosting in the decorator tubes and had to come up with something to do with it. I decided that the extra frosting could best be used to decorate the dogs' faces.

Boris was unsure about this at first, but after licking the frosting off of his nose, decided that it was delicious. So, he was treated to several more flowers on the schnoz. This was accompanied by much laughter from the humans in the room. But, time was quickly getting away from us and I had to move the cakes onto the stove (out of the way) and go to get our coats. I made it as far as the living room doorway when I heard Savannah scream, "BORIS!!!!!"

Uh-oh.

I head back to the kitchen to find that Boris didn't feel he'd finished with the frosting yet, and he had licked a corner of flowers off of one of our cakes. This is one of the problems of living with a Great Dane. There are pretty much no kitchen surfaces high enough. So, we were down to one cake to take for the Cake Walk. Oh, well.

Saturday was also exciting since Stacey and I were heading out to the Plain White T's concert. We were unsure prior to the concert if we were going to be the oldest people there. The band is quite popular, but Stacey and I seem to have a knack for loving the same things that are popular amongst 12 year olds. This concern was only deepened when Savannah informed me that she knew who the Plain White T's were because she's seen them on Nickelodeon's iCarly. SUPER!

But, once we arrived, we were relieved to see that we were definitely not the oldest folks in the crowd. There were quite a few younger girls there, but it was completely filled with the iCarly crowd. I did, however, spot a girl who may have belonged not with the iCarly crowd, but maybe the Little House on the Prairie crowd.

All joking aside, I would have much rather been surrounded by the iCarly / Little House on the Prairie kids than the drunken fool who stood in front of me. Because I was treated to a floor full of vomit before the Plain White T's finished their first song. Yipee! Nothing better than standing in vomit while wearing some new open toed shoes. But, while my feet were sticking to the floor, the Plain White T's were rockin'! I have posted a few videos from the night on my YouTube page, if you want to see a little of the show.

Once the show was over, the bands all came out to meet the fans, sign things, and take pictures. They were all so nice and down to earth. And here they all are with me!

(I'm certain that his face looks like that because he was mesmerized by my beauty and not because of any strange vomit-y smells that may have been wafting up from my feet.)

Incognito

2010-10-28T14:31:00.000-07:00

It's red ribbon week at school this week. Today was dress like a spy day. Here is Savannah's attire for the day:

Secret Agent Teensie!

Oh crap...

2010-10-26T10:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, while driving to work and brainstorming ways to afford all of the kids upcoming activities and still be able to purchase them something for Christmas, my car "binged" at me. I looked down at the dashboard to see the check engine light lit up. And then the car started violently chugging and lurching.

Crap! Crap! Double crap!

I was located somewhere near the middle of nowhere and not within walking distance of anything. I figured my options were to flag down the next trucker or to chug and lurch my way to town. I chose option 3, call dad.

He recommended I chug and lurch my way to our mechanics, if possible.
So, I did. All the while praising my car for each successful intersection we made it through.
"You can do it, little car. You can do it."

Once I arrived at the mechanics, I sat in the car for a minute rehearsing my performance to accurately describe what my car's problem was. I'm not sure why a car problem can only be accurate conveyed through a game of charades coupled with some Grammy worthy sound effects, but that's the way it is.
I left my keys with the mechanic, prayed for an inexpensive repair, and hopped into my dad's truck to be transported to work.

At the end of my work day, my dad was kind enough to pick me up and help me figure out how in the world I was going to get the kids picked up from school clear back in Arlington.

Well, surprise, surprise. My car repair was not only going to relatively inexpensive, but it was already done! Hooray.

Then, my dad told me that the mechanic wanted to know if I was single.
What?
That's right. He thought I was really good lookin'. And wanted to know if I was available. And thought the best thing to do was ask my dad about me. Keep in mind that my mechanic is about the same age as my dad.

I was laughing about this with my sister later when she asked me, "Well, is he good looking?"
"Not really."
"Well, is he rich?"
"I don't think so."

Hmmm.
He could, however, save me a lot of money in car repairs. This may require further contemplation.

Threat Level Raised to Orange!

2010-10-24T21:55:00.000-07:00

I have 2 dogs. Boris and Fillmore. Both are complete idiots. Boris is a Great Dane and Fillmore is a Pommerat (aka Mutt).

Today, while I was peacefully reading a book, it seems our house was suddenly under attack. Fillmore raised the alert. We are currently at threat level orange!

Squirrel attack!

Well, maybe not attack as much as squirrels are foraging around in our trees and yard for delicious nuts. And, if they can torment Fillmore during this process, all the better. And he hates those vermin skulking around his yard. And the squirrels love to flick their tails in his direction, just to taunt him.

Squirrels do have an evil streak. I think that's why I like them. They get quite irritated with us if we come out of the house forcing them to abandon their ground activities and flee to the trees. We often find ourselves being pelted with whatever the squirrels can get their little squirrel hands on to chuck in our direction. And, cussing us out, I'm sure. There is definitely a lot of unfriendly squirrel talk going on.

Anyway, Fillmore has a deep deep hatred for the squirrels and this is how my moronic dog lets us know that squirrel danger is upon us:

You can see at the end how concerned Boris is with this potential threat.

Donations Welcome

2010-10-24T09:39:00.000-07:00

I'm looking into contacting my bank to see if they offer a low interest loan for parent's of middle schoolers. Mine is bleeding me dry.

Myles has outgrown every piece of clothing from last year including his winter coat. And, to make matters worse, he has decided that Target is not the coolest place to find his winter wardrobe and is demanding name brand clothing. (I knew this day was coming, I have just been trying to delay it as long as possible.)

He wanted to play fall baseball this year and even though it was a HUGE expense, I decided to let him do it. Of course, he loved it. Now, he's planning to play basketball this season and his first team meeting is on Monday. Guess what? He has to have basketball shoes and dress clothes.

This past weekend he was invited to go to a lock-in with a friend of his. That was $35. He had planned to attend the first middle school dance yesterday. Another $5. (He ended up not going. So, quite a hefty savings I got there.) But, he did attend every single home football game and required refreshments from the concession stand, so savings cancelled out.

Now, next weekend, he has been invited to go to a Kansas City Chiefs game with a friend of his. That is going to be super fun for him and I couldn't deny him the opportunity, but more expense.

All of this is coupled with Savannah's elementary school needs like Cheer Night, food drive, classroom parties and activities. And she needed a Halloween costume.

She had initially decided to be an iPod, which was going to be such an easy costume to make, but about 2 weeks ago, she changed her mind and wanted to be a devil. A store bought devil. (Crap)

But, while out searching for her costume, she found this rocker girl costume and liked it even better.

But it cost $35 and was made out of the crappiest costume material available. I thought, we could definitely make this for less than $35. (Of course, I forgot that my free time available for such a project was microscopic.) So, when Savannah's friend's mom sent me a message on Thursday asking if Savannah would like to spend the night at their house on Saturday and then go to the trick or treat event at the zoo on Sunday, I nearly had a panic attack. My main problem was that I couldn't find a jean skirt anywhere in the entire city that would make her costume any less expensive. Plus we were going to be cutting slits in it.

Crap.

Until I stumbled upon a website with step by step instructions on how to turn a pair of jeans into a jean skirt. It only took me two tries to get it looking right, but I did it. And it really didn't take much time at all.

Then, we hand dyed some gauze, sewed it onto the front of a black tshirt, and cut out the spooky face. We found an old stocking cap, cut it up and stitched it back up with purple stitches. And Voila. A zombie rocker.

And, she's even got the zombie walk mastered.

She has black hairspray and face paint to be added for the full zombie effect, but I'll post the completed look on Halloween.

As for the Middle School Parenting loan, I'll let you know if I find anything out. Or, if you'd like to make a donation to my cause, I can send you my paypal information. :)

Book Signing

2010-10-16T16:01:00.001-07:00

The kids and I were able to meet Patricia Polacco today. She was doing a signing at the Bookworm. The kids both did really neat projects on Patricia Polacco when they were in second grade and I was so excited to see that she was coming to town. Here we are:

She even brought the Keeping Quilt with her! I guess she takes the Meteor to the schools she visits for the kids to see as well. Very neat. She is going to be doing another presentation at the Omaha Public Library on Monday. I think Savannah will take her poster she made as her second grade project in to show to Patricia.

Then, we'll be going to see a presentation by Gordon Korman on Tuesday at the Omaha Community Playhouse. He happens to be the author of some of my favorite childhood books, the Bruno and Boots books.

David Sedaris is coming on the 25th, too. So many authors! Yay! I'm going to be broke!

Would You Rather...

2010-10-13T04:55:00.000-07:00

Have you ever played the game Would You Rather...? Well, if you haven't you should. It's very fun. My kids love it. We had a blast playing it this past weekend.

Savannah pulled a challenge card and had to choose a challenge to do. She chose to let someone write Goof on her face and sit that way for the next several turns. Since having your face written upon with lipstick is so fun, all future challenge cards were modified to contain a similar challenge. Here are the glorious results:

(Just an FYI, it's a bit labor intensive to remove this much lipstick from your face.)

This past weekend, we also purchased our first ever loaf of Pretzel Bread. I had never heard of pretzel bread before but since we make homemade pretzels all the time, we decided this was something we had to try. And it was really good. So, we made some. It was super delicious and I may have to make it daily. I'll have to post the recipe later because blogger isn't letting me paste it in and typing it out is not an option. But here is a picture of the results:

I've also gotten a little crafting done recently. Here are a couple of wreaths that I made this week. I'm a little fixated on candy corn. Can you tell?

Now are you craving some candy corn?

Guess what I found...

2010-10-02T08:27:00.000-07:00

While Savannah was in her dance class, Myles and I went around the corner to kill some time in the Dollar General store. While walking around in there, I spotted these...

I picked these two up for my nieces. And, once Savannah got out of her class she decided she needed one too. Yipee! That meant I wouldn't have to go back and get one for myself. Savannah let me color a page in hers that very night. I momentarily travelled back in time to when I was 8 years old on a Saturday morning watching the Smurfs, coloring, and enjoying a delicious bowl of cap'n crunch cereal. Ahh, the good old days.

Fall Ball Comes to an End

2010-09-27T16:04:00.000-07:00

Summer started out filled with baseball. Myles loves it. As long as his team wins. His dreams of being drafted by the major leagues before he even enters high school are very vivid. But really he loves the game. He has become one of those guys that can spout off the answer to any baseball trivia question out there. And he's only 12. I've tried to stump him. Can't do it.

He definitely loves the time spent with his friends in the dugout. Loves the snacks from the concession stand. Loves regaling us with his stories of wrongful calls by the umps and glorious plays made in the outfield.

I love how much joy he gets from the sport.

Unfortunately, what I seem to get from the sport is an unfortunate tan. I spent several days following his season opener two summers ago begging my family to take me to the burn unit at the hospital after receiving the worst sunburn of my life. And it left me with a beautiful tan line across the lower portion of my thighs that wouldn't fade until the following spring. Burn scar. I have learned to wear a hat because fine blonde hair doesn't protect the scalp from the sun. And it's extremely painful to blow dry your hair with a sunburned scalp. This year I felt like I'd gained some knowledge in the baseball season sunburn department, but still was left with those unfortunate burns on the small strips that didn't receive quite enough sunscreen.

I'm basically a red hot mess from May through July. And, this year Myles decided he wanted to play fall ball. I sat out in the cool fall air this past Sunday. The weather was really beautiful. Myles had a double header. Since I was prepared for the day to be cool, I wore long sleeves.

Guess what? Back of the hand sunburn.

The sun hates me.

The feeling is becoming mutual.

Rummaging Around

2010-09-18T07:32:00.000-07:00

It is time for the annual rummage sale that happens at the fairgrounds in my little town. Yipee!! I loves me a rummage sale. I have gone every year that we have lived here and have always found something fabulous. This year, just like last year, my sister came up to rummage with me. Some of our great finds included Taylor Swift and Twilight tshirts for our daughters, some awesome jammies for the kids, and my personal favorite... Snowpants! I found Myles these awesome jammie pants

They are covered in Cheeseburgers! He loves them. And on our second trip down there, Myles found me this fabulous shirt

Wicked! Yay! And in my size. I credited him with the Rummage Sale Find of the Day.

I also picked up these super cute jar glasses for only ten cents a piece and I found 8 of them!

But really the most fun of the rummage sale is when my sister and I search through the table of tshirts looking for tshirts for ourselves. We have picked up YMCA tshirts, Zios Pizzaria tshirts, and tshirts from locations we have never visited. These awesome shirts generally bring us mocking and ridicule whenever we wear them, but love them we do.

Our general rummage sale strategy is to pick up everything we see that we may be interested in, haul all that crap around with us and then weed through it before we pay, putting back 75% of the crap we've been carrying around. This strategy results in excessive sweating while shopping, and sore arm muscles for days after the sale. But that's our plan and we're sticking to it.

So, during our weeding out process this year, I hold up a purple sweater that I was hanging onto for myself. "Do you think this is cute, or too teenager-y?" I ask Stacey. Her hesitation gave me my answer. I turned the sweater back around to look at it again because I thought it was cute. That's when I noticed the tag. it was from Justice for Girls. So that sweater wasn't even teenager-y, it was elementary school-y. My fashion sense may need some updating.

Then, I had picked up a tshirt that had a lion drawn on it. I grabbed it because it was really soft and the lion was kind of neat looking. But, it had a saying on the front. And I couldn't tell for sure what it said.

"What does this say?" I asked Stacey.

"Howard Forever?" she said.

"No, I think it's N-O-W-A-N-D, not Howard," I said.

"Oh, well I don't know what that means," she said to me. "No Wand Forever? I'm not sure."

Hmmm. Is this some brand name? A designer's name? Nowand Forever? No wand Forever. The lion reminded me of Narnia, so maybe it had something to do with that. Wand brings Harry Potter to mind. But, whatever. I'll google it at home before I leave the house wearing it to prevent questioning that I can't answer.

Fast forward to later in the day. I have shown the kids their loot, and thrown everything into the washer. While transferring everything to the dryer, I remember the No Wand Forever shirt and decide to solve this mystery. Onto Google I go. For all you non-morons out there (I, sadly, fall into the complete moron category) , Google will correct your spelling when you misspell something you are searching for. That's when I learned that No Wand Forever was actually Now And Forever. Ha ha. Neither me nor my sister could figure that out.

Total double blonde moment. We are blondes Now and Forever!

Doggie Doo Doo

2010-09-15T10:48:00.000-07:00

Guess what I was doing at 4:20am this morning? Cleaning up doggie diarrhea. From a Great Dane. It wasn't pretty. I woke up to his crying and howling and eventual insistant barking.
"Damn it, Boris," I sleepily croaked. He never wakes me up this early whining like this so obviously something is up. And upon reaching the hallway we keep him penned up in, SOMETHING WAS UP. Thankfully, the smell was too overpowering, but the entire hallway and most of the lower portions of Boris were not pretty. So, outside he went.
While he ran loose outside (we have no fence and I wasn't going to touch him to hook him to his rope, and in his current state, he wasn't going anywhere anyway), I cleaned up the hallway and threw yet another load of poopy blankets into the washer. (We've already been dealing with this problem for the past 24 hours). So, I did some quick online research and cooked up some white rice for Boris to eat. As a thank you for this homemade delight at 4:45am, he promptly pooped all over the back porch. So he went back outside and I put my cleaning gloves back on.
I'm not sure what state the house will be in when I return to it this afternoon. I may have to just leave it and move on.
Reason #1 not to choose a Great Dane for a pet: intestinal maladies are the things of nightmares. A sick elephant could not produce a greater disaster. Also, that cute face over to the right...
well, it's a whole lot less cute at 4:30am when it's covered in poop.

I am in Love...

2010-07-19T20:56:00.000-07:00

It's true. I am completely head over heels in love. With a salsa.

I took the kids to the Omaha Farmers Market this past weekend. It was a trip that could have easily been a major mistake since the Omaha Farmers Market is held in a black top parking lot and I think the temperature was close to 88 degrees at 8am and there was about 900% humidity. But, we haven't been to the farmers market all summer, so we were going.

We got there and quickly found ourselves in a crowd of very sweaty people and we were quickly beginning to blend in. The kids were looking forward to the samples. (I was too.) We started off our quick tour of the market at a cheese vendors booth sampling several different varieties of cheese before moving on to the next table that was grilling meat. I sampled some breads and picked up a delicious sourdough baguette, most of which was quickly transported into my belly over the next 48 hours. I also bought a dozen peaches which will be made into pies. I even grabbed myself a cute little bunch of wildflowers.

Then we moved on to Erick's Enchiladas. They had enchilada samples out that the kids quickly grabbed up. I went for the salsa they had sitting out. They had green and red. I sampled the green. They have their own homemade fried flour tortilla chips used for dipping. Once that chip and salsa hit my tongue, the heavens opened up. My eyes may have rolled up into my head and I may have audibly moaned. So so yummy.

I usually won't buy any salsas from the farmer's markets because I like to make my own and I'm a tad picky about my salsas. Not too chunky, just enough spice, just enough salt. But, I've never made a green salsa before. So, this purchase was necessary. I, then, spent the rest of the weekend frying up pieces of flour tortillas to eat my salsa with. And, as an extra bonus, no one else in my house thinks the salsa is all that fantastic. IT'S ALL MINE!!!!!

Before They Croaked

2010-07-14T20:17:00.000-07:00

The kids and I went out to a balloon glow last weekend. We parked the car on the side of the road and got out to walk the block and a half to the balloons. But, once Savannah got out of the car, she spotted something very exciting. Toads! They were everywhere! She squatted right down and started scooping them up. We chased toads for the entire walk up to the balloons where I spotted a lemonade stand selling bottles of water. So we chugged the water and Savannah was then allowed to scoop up "a couple" of new short-term pets.

We went home with 5 toads and 2 frogs. She made up a little home for them and named them all (after the Twilight characters, by the way. Bella and Edward were the frogs because they are special.)

Unfortunately for me, I forgot that last summers' pet toads were a problem because I ended up having to buy crickets to feed them. And buying bugs is not high on my list of enjoyable expenses. And a bag full of live crickets on the passenger seat of my car does not improve my driving skills. I did end up buying crickets for these toads once, but was luckily able to talk Savannah into freeing the toads yesterday. This picture shows her happy face before we liberated them.

We walked up to a nearby grassy area near a creek that was full of bugs and Savannah let them go.

They seemed very happy and Savannah seemed happy about their future in their new home. They are likely going to grow into giant bullfrogs with all the bugs they will have available to them!

Summer surprises!

2010-07-14T13:49:00.000-07:00

We've had some unexpected guests this summer. It's been pretty exciting. We came home about a month ago and discovered this on our porch:

We had to take this shot through the front door because we were afraid to scare him off. He was watching us the whole time, though. Eventually, he did fly up into the tree in our yard.

We went out onto our front porch to watch him and he continued to watch us. We were calling him Hedwig. There were two of them living in our trees for a couple of weeks, but they have now moved on.

Then, thanks to all the rain we've been having this summer, we have a big crop of mushrooms popping up all over our yard. They started out looking like enlarged golf balls all over the yard, but if I could keep the kids from kicking them over, they opened up into HUGE mushrooms.

I think these giant mushrooms are really cool, so I took my camera outside to snap these pictures of them. (Before the kids kick them to smithereens.) But, while I was taking these pictures, I discovered something rather surprising. It seems that the mushrooms might also be the homes to some rather surprising guests. See if you can pick them out in the pictures.

Apparently it is very rare to spot these elusive creatures, so we feel very fortunate to have been able to snap these pictures of them. We are still looking for Gargamel's castle, but are quite certain it's nearby.

La la la la la la. La la la la la. La la la la la la. La la la la la.

Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives: Grinder's

2010-05-10T16:09:00.000-07:00

This is an episode of Diners Drive-ins and Dives featuring Grinders, where Stacey and I ate lunch on our way to see Chelsea Handler. So so yummy. We had a pizza, which was delicious. And I cannot wait to go back. It's definitely added to my list of definite stops in KC.

24 Hours and Counting

2010-05-06T08:00:00.000-07:00

Until my sister and I will be hanging with Chelsea Handler. We are going to travel down to Kansas City where Chelsea is doing a book signing and performance. I cannot wait.

Unfortunately for me, the universe is slightly less excited about my upcoming mini vacation.

Yesterday, I realized that the squeaking in my brakes may have grown into a full fledged grinding. Not good when said car is transporting us to our next celebrity event. Thankfully, my brother-in-law is going to look at them for me. (He's also watching all four kids this weekend and might be running for father / brother-in-law of the year.)

Today I woke up after a mere 4 1/2 hours of sleep to realize that Savannah has a field trip today. These ususally require a "sack lunch". The only sack lunch I could provide today would have consisted of the ribs I made for dinner last night and forgot to put into the fridge. I figured the chance of food poisoning was too great to risk and was forced to get the kids up early so we could run to the grocery store before school. They were less than thrilled to be woken up and told to "HURRY UP!"

I raced down to the kitchen to let the dogs out only to discover that the new container of vanilla ice cream that I had pulled out of the fridge last night to soften up had been forgotten and allowed to melt and seep all over the counter and underneath the microwave. CRAP!!

One entire roll of paper towels later, we were out the door. All 3 of us had a frown deeply etched on our faces.

After eating a doughnut, my mood improved. The universe may be trying to bring me down, but I will not be broken! Screw you universe! I am still super excited about the trip to see Chelsea Handler and will be posting updates, so stay tuned!! And if things continue to go this badly, I will be taking a bottle of Belvedere vodka with me (for Chelsea to sign and for self medication if necessary).

Introducing....

2010-05-05T14:59:00.000-07:00

Peanut, the newest member of our family. He's a very cute little gray and white gerbil.

Savannah got him for her birthday last week. It was a very exciting day. We returned to our house on a Thursday night, after buying Peanut and all of the equipment he requires, only to realize that we were all starving. I had a manic mommy moment when I realized I had to cook a quick dinner, assemble a gerbil cage that was entirely too complicated, and put out 2 dogs that had been cooped up all day and had vomited all over the hallway they are penned up in. Oh, Joy!

I chose to tackle the insanely complicated gerbil cage assembly first, figuring that once the gerbil was safely housed in his actual cage I would feel better about cooking food nearby. He was patiently awaiting his new home while hunkering down in a small cardboard pet box. Maybe patiently is the wrong word since he was frantically scratching at the box and I was certain he was about to gnaw his way to freedom at any moment. I was quite certain that Savannah's birthday would not end happily if her new gerbil ended up on a glue trap in the basement.

45 minutes later, I could not figure out how to get one of the last two pieces on the cage. There was this small piece that just wouldn't fit in it's place. So I forced it. And broke it. Dang! Peanut now lives in a home that is partially held together by duct tape. Much like everything else in our house. Savannah wasn't pleased about my breaking the cage, but so far Peanut hasn't escaped and the duct tape is holding strong.

Savannah then set to loading up the cage with bedding, filling the food bowl and water bottle, and placing the chewing sticks. Finally Peanut has his home.

I was then able to cook dinner and feed our hungry bellies. And clean up a very nasty hallway. Two activities that go great together.

Savannah spent the rest of the night playing with her gerbil. She had her hand in that cage for a couple of hours petting Peanut. She was desperate to hold him. We had been warned that the gerbil hadn't been handled much yet and was very young. So, biting was likely.

"Mom, Peanut's bites don't even hurt!" Savannah came running to tell me. "He just nibbles a little bit.
Great, I thought. But, he hasn't really bitten her if she thinks it doesn't hurt. A short while later, she came to me with blood dripping down her hand. "MOM!!! Peanut bit me." He had bitten her and he bit her hard. We washed off her hand and had to sit on the couch for a little while because the sight of "so much" of her own blood made her nauseous. "He is NOT coming to show and tell." She told me.

By the time bedtime had rolled around Peanut had been mostly forgiven and allowed to move into Savannah's room. He has been living in there happily now for almost a week. We still have not successfully picked him up and are using a special rubberized glove to try to pet him with (for finger protection). He has amused us all by running like a lunatic in his exercise wheel. Unfortunately his favorite time to exercise is around 3am. This has forced Savannah to abandon her own room a couple of nights because of the huge racket he was making.

All in all, Peanut has been an exciting addition to our family. Savannah has been reading to him every day after school this week. He's the perfect captive audience.

I'm still determined to get a good picture of him. So far he's been incredibly camera shy.

Oh what a week!

2010-05-01T19:48:00.001-07:00

This has been a very eventful week in our house. Savannah celebrated her 9th birthday on Thursday. I'm not sure how 9 years have flown by so quickly. She was just my little tiny baby a minute ago, I swear. But, nevertheless, she is officially 9 years old now. And what a cute 9 year old she is.

She wanted to take my homemade pretzels in to her classroom for her special birthday treat, and being the world's greatest mother, I could not deny her the birthday pretzels. Unfortunately, this meant that I would have to get up extra early on a work/school day and make pretzels. I figured that giving myself an entire extra hour for pretzel making would be plenty of time. Turns out it takes 3 hours from beginning to end to make a double batch of homemade pretzels. I was ready for a nap before we even got out the door. But, the pretzels were delicious and all of her classmates were treated to my awesome pretzels.

Then, on Friday, Savannah had her day at the farm field trip. I took the day off to go with her. We travelled all the way down to the Washington County Fairgrounds (this included a 2.5 minute bus ride to transport the kids the 4 block distance). Once there we were treated to a lesson in how a cow's stomach works. We learned about the 4 compartments and ruminant nutrition and how cow's diets are studied (for fattening them up, most likely) and then the class was served some all beef hot dogs. Savannah, who had been suppressing her gag reflex for the entire lesson in cow digestion, chose to pass on the hot dogs.

We were also shown some cute little pigs. They were completely adorable. And after all the kids were done saying "aaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwww", they were asked about what kinds of delicious meats come from pigs. There were shouts of "BACON" and "RIBS" and "PORK CHOPS", all the while they were putting their hands through the bars to touch the cute little piggies. After our little lesson in all the products that contain some kind of pork by-product, the class was treated to some ham. Once again, Savannah passed. I was well on my way to becoming a vegetarian.

This little field trip had ruined all of my delusions about my meat being delivered to the meat case at the grocery store by magic meat fairies. And all those cute cows and piggies live long happy lives out in those fields I pass by every day.

So, Savannah and I made ourselves feel better by spending the evening shopping for some cute new outfits, and bringing home some delicious broccoli beef, sesame chicken, and szechuan pork all provided by the meat fairies. We managed to gobble it all up.

Saturday was spent at the baseball complex. Myles had baseball pictures followed by a game. I had concession stand duty. This was Myles's first game of the season. He played second base and right field. And his team kicked some butt. These boys have endured some tough seasons in the past and have struggled to keep their spirits up. This year, their opening game was a shut out. 15 to nothing!! I had to watch as much of it as I could from the concession stand window, but Savannah and Papaw were taking some excellent pictures.

It was a great start to the season! All the boys came out of the dugout with smiles on their faces.

Tomorrow will be Savannah's birthday party with the family. And I'll be introducing everyone to our newest family member, Peanut. So, stay tuned. Another week of craziness is about to begin...

DUCK!!

2010-04-26T16:25:00.000-07:00

I was outside with the kids the other day working on their baseball skills. Myles's baseball season is about to start and Savannah's class has been playing baseball in gym class. So, they wanted to show me how awesome they are. Myles is in the 6th grade now and is probably stronger than me. And, athletically speaking, I'm not so talented. We have a very strict wiffle ball policy at our house to hopefully eliminate the need to constantly replace windows on our house as well as the neighbors' houses. And since I have been operating under the delusion that wiffle balls will not break our windows and playing with the kids would not result in my death or disfiguration.

A few years ago, I had gone up to the baseball fields with Myles to pitch to him and give him a chance to practice his batting. That's when I learned that pitching is not my forte. I hit him with more pitches than he hit. So, when pitching to him in the front yard, I was fully prepared to suck at pitching again. However, when standing closer to Myles and throwing a wiffle ball, my accuracy was greatly improved. However, he has studied all of his major league heroes swings and tries to hit the ball 4 blocks down the road each time. I am completely convinced that I have an 11 year old Barry Bonds on my hands.

I pitched the very first pitch to him and he hit it. A mere nano second passed before I heard the whistle of the ball flying centimeters from my ear.

"MYLES!" I hollered at him. "Do not try to kill me!"

He just laughed and got ready for the next pitch. I threw the ball, and WHAP! The ball came flying directly back at me and smacked into my chest. HARD! I'm pretty sure there is still a wiffle ball imprint there. And let me tell you those suckers hurt. And I'd be lying if I told you that this particular wiffle ball line drive didn't bring tears to my eyes. But, I choked them back, ignored his laughter and suppressed my desire to hit him with the next pitch.

Savannah stepped up offering to pitch to him, but I was afraid she might end up decapitated.

"DO NOT HIT HER PITCHES AS HARD AS YOU CAN!" I warned him. Then I walked over to the front porch to sit down and try to regain a normal heart rhythm.

Savannah pitched the ball and, having learned from watching me, immediately hit the deck.

We continued on in this manner for a while. Pitch. Hit the deck. And repeat. I think it was an excellent method since Savannah never got hit.

Then, Savannah decided it was her turn to hit. This was going to be more my speed, I figured. I was wrong again. Once again I threw the ball and once again the ball came flying at the speed of light back at me, this time hitting me on the side of the head smashing my glasses into my nose.

"SAVANNAH!" I hollered again. "Are you guys trying to kill me?" Both of the kids were giggling again.

"I'll pitch to her, Mom," Myles said, regaining his composure.

I went over to the front porch to sit down and tend to my new concussion. I'm heading out to Scheels tomorrow to buy my self some protective gear. I'm thinking the full catcher's pads and helmet should do the trick. Otherwise, this will be my new look:

What a Day!

2010-04-15T21:05:00.000-07:00

I bought myself some very pretty flowers yesterday. So spring-y, so pretty. And today, I decided to take them to work with me to brighten up my desk. Of course I had already put them in water and dumped in the special packet of flower-keep-em-alive magic powder, so the water was coming along too. I drove with my pretty flowers safely tucked between my legs and drove carefully so as not to arrive to work looking as though I have a bladder control problem. Unfortunately, I had bigger problems awaiting me.

While, driving down Maple Street in way west Omaha, a turkey darted out in front of me, roadrunner style, and I slowed to let him scoot across. But, since turkeys are not the brightest of big fat delicious birds, it decided that it should attempt flight. That put it in a direct collision course with my windshield.

So, I think I killed me my first turkey. Weapon of choice = PT Cruiser. Some kids play PT Cruiser Bruiser. I play PT Cruiser KILLER.

So, it smashed into my windshield shattering it and sending tiny bits of glass all over the car. I'm not sure of the outcome for the turkey, but I don't imagine he walked away. Neither did my windshield. So, I pulled into a nearby parking lot and called my mom.
(At what age do we stop calling our mother's in an emergency? Probably never. At least for me. And, luckily she still comes to my rescue every single time. Thanks Mama.)

So, I got out, brushed off most of the glass on my clothes. Dumped the glass out of my shoes. And started swearing. A lot. There was a police officer sitting on the side of the road nearby. He didn't bother to come see if I was ok. I guess the stream of foul language flowing from my mouth left him with no worries about my well-being.
Anyhow, I drove myself to work, feeling the stares of all my fellow drivers. "Holy crap! Look at her car! There's a feather sticking out of her windshield!" I would rather get attention for being so cute and driving such a cute car, not the pitying and questioning glances I was getting. Once at work, I could feel every tiny piece of glass that I had missed in my shoes. Step. Stab. Step. Stab.

On the bright side, with all of that glass all over me, I sparkle like Edward Cullen. Maybe I'll be mistaken for a vampire today. I always suspected that Edward and I were destined to be together.

(By the way, I learned this week that Anne Bancroft was 35 years old when she played Mrs. Robinson. I am 35 years old. I could be Mrs. Robinson.)

Minute To Win It

2010-04-01T18:32:00.000-07:00

Have you seen the show? We love it. It has some really great, fun games. The kids have been challenging themselves after watching the contestants play the games. This past Wednesday, we were watching the show and the contestant was playing "Don't Blow the Joker". She tried 3 different times, but failed. The way you play is by putting a deck of cards on top of a bottle. The bottom card of the deck needs to be the joker, face up. Then you have to blow the cards off of the top of the bottle, leaving only the joker. After watching the contestant fail the challenge, we pulled out a deck of cards and a plastic bottle and gave it a try. Myles did it on his very first try. Oh, if only he had been on the show he'd have just won $100,000!

So, we took a video of Myles and Savannah doing the challenge side by side and posted it on YouTube. Here is the video:

After posting it last night, I received an email from someone who works for the show. They want to use the video on the show! Myles and Savannah are about to become famous!! We are now going to be attempting all of the challenges and posting videos. I'm recommending that they do a kids show.

Alegria and Peeps

2010-03-28T08:10:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Stacey and I went to see the Cirque Du Soliel's Alegria. (Or Circus O Lay, as Savannah calls it.) It was so cool. I'm honestly considering running away to join the circus. I have to work on my bendiness and my trapeze abilities. Circus O Lay here I come!

The bummer of the day was that absolutely NO photographs were allowed. And I had bought new batteries and everything. The security lady warned us that if we were caught taking pictures our cameras would be confiscated. DANG! So we only got pictures of ourselves outside by the trailers.

Then, this morning, I finally finished (ok, started and finished) my peeps banner for Easter. It's only going to be able to be displayed for a week, but it turned out really cute. You can find the tutorial here.

A Cartoonist in the House

2010-03-28T07:38:00.000-07:00

Last week the kids had "Arts Alive" week at school. The school had several different art activities planned throughout the week, including bringing in a cartoonist one day. The kids were able to learn about cartooning from the artist and came home with little practice drawings. This inspired Savannah to learn more and she, once again, turned to Youtube to find out more. (She's done this with many things that have interested her at school. She can tell me many obscure details about Amelia Earhart and Anne Frank thanks to her internet research. It's impressive for a third grader.)

Anyway, after learning some techniques from Youtube, here are some of her drawings.

I still can't draw this well. Maybe she'll give me some lessons. :)

Eye on the Prize

2010-03-26T13:41:00.000-07:00

A couple of months ago I received an email from Pepperidge Farms telling me that my daughter had entered a contest of theirs and she was a winner! (wait, Savannah has just corrected me. It was clear back in January that we found out she was a winner. She has been waiting for 3 LONG MONTHS!) This may have been the most exciting news she had ever received. Unfortunately, the prize was not shipped overnight. And she has been waiting FOREVER!

Today there was a box on the porch. It was addressed to Savannah.

OH HAPPY DAY!!

Respect the Badge

2010-03-24T20:13:00.000-07:00

We are now officially trained storm spotters. Tornadoes beware.

I'm Still Alive ........ Barely

2010-03-21T19:33:00.000-07:00

Friday night I had allowed Savannah to ask one of her friends to come over for a sleep over. Myles was allowed to ask a friend over, too, but his friend couldn't come on Friday. So, Saturday was agreed upon.

I had thought it would be fun to take the kids to the High School Play on Friday night and then, depending on how awake the kids were, I would take them to one of the release parties for New Moon. Of course, once I got home from work and picking up the kids, I sat on the couch and there must have been some sort of magnet in the couch because I couldn't get up off of it. And that same magnet was working very hard at pulling down my eyelids. It was terrible. So, Friday's activities were a total bust. Savannah and her friend took this time (having very little supervision from the sleep mom) to take all of Savannah's Barbie Dolls into the bathroom for a "makeover event". After Myles asked me what the girls had been doing in the bathroom for the past hour, I panicked. Knock, knock.

"What are you guys doing in there?"

"We are just giving the barbies a bath."

"Ok. The room isn't flooded, is it?"

"Nope."
Hmmm. When the girls emerged from the bathroom a short time later, they were pretty much soaked. The bathroom didn't seem to be any worse for the wear, so I returned to my couch. The next morning while getting ready to take a shower, I found the barbies all in the shower. They all seemed to be sporting a new, much shorter, bob hairstyle. There were hair covered scissors on the sink and strange clumps of many colors of barbie hair in the trash can.

Oh, well. I guess it was time for Barbie's summer cut. I did learn that Barbie hairs are quite prickly when they are all over the floor.

So, moving on to Saturday, Savannah decided to invite her friend along to see Diary of A Wimpy Kid. I had been looking forward to seeing this movie since I heard it was being made. I may have been more excited about it than the kids were. We've all been asking each other if anyone wants to see our special freckle. "It's got a haaaiiirrr on it." ha ha.

Anyway, off to the movie we go. We have an entire row to ourselves until the previews start. That's when a group of teenagers comes into the theater and decides they need to sit in our row, right up against Myles. I always think this is odd. There were other more open areas to sit in.

MOVIE THEATER RULE #1 -- When there are rows of open seats do not take a seat directly next to a complete stranger.

So, I glance over at the teenagers. The boy sitting right next to Myles has kicked off his sneakers and is dangling his nasty sock foot right in front of him. And, he's picking his nose. (It may be the teenage Fregley).

"Do you want me to move us down a couple of seats?" I whisper over to Myles.

"No, I'm fine," he says.

"There's lots of open seats on the other side of the girls, Myles. We could move down a little bit."

"NO, MOM. I'M FINE."

I learned after the movie that the nasty boy was a senior from his school. I guess it is still cool to sit next to a senior even if the senior is Fregley.

We all did like the movie and I may have laughed louder than anyone else in the theater because I'm a dork like that.

We picked up one of Myles's friends after the movie and went back to our house. After making a batch of chocolate chip cookies and homemade chicken nachos for dinner, we headed out to the High School Play. It was pretty fun. Myles ran into a couple more of his friends and sat with them. Savannah and her friend sat with me and critiqued everyone's performance. The teachers performed the Evolution of Dance, which was the height of hilarity to the kids. :)

Then, Savannah's friend was picked up and a second of Myles's friends came over to stay the night as well. Savannah was now getting a cold and she and I decided to camp out on the couch, while Myles and his friends spent most of the night upstairs. (Thank goodness!) They did come down fairly frequently for pop and almost the entire batch of chocolate chip cookies.

I slept on the couch next to the girl covered in Vic's Vaporub, in a ball. I woke up at 2:30am to the barking of the dogs, boys having the Mother of all Nerf Battles, a stiff neck, backache, and sore throat. GREAT!

I ended up getting up around 8 after a very unrestful night. I checked on the boys to make sure they hadn't killed each other. None of them seemed to have any Nerf projectiles protruding out of their eyes, and all were sleeping. But, not for long. They came downstairs STARVING. So, I whipped up a double batch of pancakes, which they greedily snarfed down before heading outside to play basketball in the lovely spring 30 degree weather.

When the came back in, they were covered in mud. "SHOES OFF!" I frantically hollered at them.

A friend invited them all over to play football, and I gladly sent them off. They went back into the kitchen to put on their shoes and head out. Unfortunately for me, they mistook my kitchen rug for a wipe your muddy shoes rug, and this is what I found when I walked into the kitchen.

Boys. Gotta love 'em.

After I took all the boys home, Savannah and I decided we needed to get out for a little retail therapy. We went to Old Navy to look at some cute little skirts for Savannah and use our Friends and Family discount. We ended up hitting the jackpot there. Savannah got a bunch of really cute things and I found a pair of clearance jeans that FIT! It was a great end to my stressful, yet fun weekend.

Until I got home and realized that the dish washing fairies didn't show up and my kitchen was in the same scary state I left it in. Cooking for a houseful of boys makes a lot of dirty dishes!

Dishpan Hands? I've got them.

Spring is Here!

2010-03-18T18:47:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, being St. Patrick's Day, would normally have been my night for Corned Beef and Cabbage. It's a meal that the rest of my family hates with a passion. So, once a year I am happily fed while happily making the rest of the gang miserable. I believe Myles was maybe 3 years old when he first complained of the aromas created from a crockpot full of corned beef and cabbage. We had been out all day while the crockpot simmered away. When we pulled into the garage, everyone gagged. Everyone but me. "What is that smell?" Myles asked, his nose pinched shut. MMmmmmm. "That's the delicious smell of corned beef and cabbage."

Well, this year I made a pot roast instead of the corned beef and it was not nearly as good. I did boil cabbage and potatoes to go with it, but it just wasn't the same. The boiling cabbage did still produce it's usual lovely aroma. Myles came gagging into the kitchen. "Oh, crap it's corned beef and cabbage night!" He quickly ran for the upstairs, passing his sister and telling her to brace herself for the stink. But, she doesn't mind the smell of cabbage. (That's my girl!)

A short time later, Myles came downstairs wanting to go outside to play. I suspect the upstairs wasn't impervious to the cabbage aromas because this is how he looked when he came down.

After dinner, the kids went out to play. It was our first really spring-like day and the kids were finally able to go outside and play. Up until now, it's either been freezing and 4 feet of snow has been on the ground or it's been warm-ish and the melting snow had transformed our yard into "The Great Mud Trap". And with our first day of sun and warmth came those darn Asian beetles. They weren't getting us down, though.

We'd been indoors for so long, our eyes could hardly stand the brightness of the sun. We feared we had transformed into vampires and could no longer be out in the sun.

It was so nice to be out of the house.

Today was just as nice and I decided to take the dogs for a walk. Thanks to all of the mud in our yard the poor creatures have been confined for quite a while and really needed to stretch their legs. Try as I might, I could not get Boris, our Great Dane, to cooperate with getting his harness on. He had to stay home. Fillmore (the tiny little devil dog), Savannah, and I headed out. Fillmore ran cirlces around us, drug Savannah through yards and across streets, tripped me about 800 times. He stalked Robins, chased leaves, and growled menacingly at the kids playing in the park. He obviously hadn't been out in a while. And I was glad to not be fighting with 2 dogs during our first walk in 5 months. A couple came walking up behind us and I had to shorten the lead on Fillmore's leash. He has the mistaken belief that he is a ferocious beast. He began to flail about and growl, while I was nearly hanging him by his leash, trying to let the couple pass us.

"Oh, is he hoping we'll stop and play with him?" the lady asks.

"Um, I think he's trying to be ferocious," I tell her.

"Well, should we make our faces look really fearful, then?" she laughs.

It's at this exact moment that Fillmore wriggles out of his collar and lunges for her. I don't think she had to fake the fear on her face. Savannah and I both dove for him and he quickly dodged the both of us. He then performed some evasive maneuvers that I had never seen before in his attempt at both freedom and lady mauling. Savannah managed to nab him and I quickly lassoed the collar back over his head. It was tightened up and he was back on the path, running in circles, stalking leaves, and tripping me. I forgot how fun it is to take the dogs out for walks. Next time it's Boris's turn and I may not make it back alive.

Happy St. Pat's Day

2010-03-17T05:53:00.000-07:00

A leprechaun stopped by our house during the night and left these delightful pots of gold for the kids! Our leprechaun's name is Maeve and Savannah has been corresponding with her for quite a while now. (via that pink mailbox in the photo.) Maeve had mentioned that she might be leaving Savannah a surprise on St. Patrick's day and she certainly delivered.

Savannah also spent some time creating this chalkboard masterpiece last night. They have been working on dimension and depth in art class and she drew this magnificent pair of boots in class and then replicated it here. Such talent! (And style. I wouldn't mind having a cute pair of polka dot rain boots myself.)

So Much Excitement!

2010-03-15T18:34:00.001-07:00

I have so many things to write about. I'll start with my most shameful and most exciting. It's a story about popovers. I love them. Savannah loves them. Myles loves them. But, I don't own a popover pan. Is there a use for a popover pan other than popovers? I don't believe so. And, in my crazy little kitchen, only things with multiple or regular uses is allowed in. So, my popovers have always been made in my muffin pan. But, instead of popping over, they tend to look more like a cornbread muffin. Very flat, but still very delicious. But, during this past week, I had a craving for popovers. (Usually they are only eaten around Thanksgiving or Christmas, so this was an unusual craving.) I made my first of 3 batches in 3 days and they turned out exactly as expected. Except for one lone popover that actually popped over. Savannah claimed that one immediately. And we all proceeded to polish off the other 11 popovers within the next 12 hours. So, day 2 of the Great Popover Craving resulted in these magnificent beauties. (Do not look too closely at my muffin pan. It has seen many heavy sprays of Pam and I hate scouring.)

I'm not sure what kind of magic happened on day 2, but it was wonderful. My first batch of popping over popovers ever! If you have seen the movie The Fantastic Mr. Fox, we ate those popover much in the same way that the foxes eat anything. Greedily, messily, and with sheer abandon. Day 3 was back to normal, non-popped popovers. And we still snarfed them all down.

In other exciting news, I have discovered the joys of chalkboard paint. I refinished the top of our black coffee table with the chalkboard paint and also repainted my kitchen back splash with it. Here are some before and after shots of the kitchen.

BEFORE:

The back splash in my funky kitchen was all white, the hole came from the removal of some outdoor light fixture that used to hang over the sink. It was helpful in illuminating the dirty dishes at night, but it's placement also resulted in your near blindness. Also, it was just ugly. I now hang a cute little shelf over the hole. Cause that's how I fix things. :)

Now, the back splash is black and lovely. I do really like it, plus it is an excellent writing surface for me to remind everyone else to wash the dang dishes! Here is the end result.

AFTER:

And here is how it looks today. This is more normal -- dishes piling up.

And here is the end result of the chalkboard painted coffee table, complete with original artwork. I asked the kids to draw something on the top of the table so that I could take a picture to post on my blog. That way I'm not taking a picture of a plain black table. So, Savannah drew her cute little dog, Biscuit. Myles drew the 2 upside down faces in the top right corner. They're barfing. Thanks Myles.
I also hung a new painting up in my bathroom.

It gives me hope that spring is coming. The snow has melted at my house for the most part. Unfortunately, it has revealed 5 months worth of Great Dane "presents" that were all mostly left in one 10 square foot area. Also known as my patio. It's a very dangerous walk from our back door to the car. Special shoes have been designated for that trek.

Today's mail yielded a very exciting find for me. My Jennifer Weiner autographed book! Sent straight from Jennifer!

Savannah caught me reading it.

Then I caught her.

Little Sneak. Give me back my book!

All Aboard the Old Folks Train

2010-03-08T07:17:00.000-08:00

Today I saw several robins while driving in to work. Yipee! So, this is a definite sign that spring is on it's way. I am so ready for it. I think everyone is. This past weekend it had warmed up into the 40's and everyone was out in their spring gear. I saw people everywhere in light spring jackets with their arms crossed across their chests, shivering. I was among them. Winter, you are sooo over! 40 degrees or not, we are wearing our spring duds.

Back to my morning of impending spring cheerfulness. I stopped in Target before going to work to pick up a pop and a snack. After paying for it, a cute guy walked past me and smiled. That's right, folks, I've still got it going on. I've just turned 35 and cute guys are still checking me out. Cloud Nine? I'm on it. So, I smiled back at him as we got closer to passing each other. Then, he said, "How are you doing this morning, Ma'am?"

Ma'am?

I hopped off of Cloud Nine and started looking around for my bus back to the old folks home.

Super Fantastic Monday Morning had just been flushed down the toilet.

However, I did spot about 10 more robins as I pulled into work. I'll have to dig out my spring-time orthopedic shoes today.

What kind of mom am I?

2010-02-24T14:02:00.000-08:00

My sister got a call from her youngest daughter's teacher today. She is planning a field trip soon and couldn't remember if she had sent home the permission slips yet. "Which parent could I call to find out? Which parent would be able to tell me if this paper had gone home already?" Stacey got the call.
"That was a weird call," Stacey told me. I was on the other line.
"Why?" I asked. "I think she was just saying that you are the most organized and reliable mom.
Not so surprisingly, I have never received a call like that.

Words of the Week

2010-02-23T18:58:00.000-08:00

Savannah brought home a stack of papers with her words of the week. They made me smil and I had to share them.
1. Word: Superb
Definition: Excellent, very fine
Sentence: When Mrs. Wolf grades our papers she uses superb. (It's true, she does, as illustrated in Savannah's picture. Savannah gets lots of superbs!)

2. Word: Attire
Definition: Clothing
Sentence: I like to draw attires for fun. (Future fashion designer?)

3. Word: Sliver
Definition: a small, thin piece
Sentence: When I do yard work with my grandpa I get slivers all the time! (In this picture, Papaw is on the left, Savannah in the middle, and Myles is on the right, distinguished by his orange shirt with the G on it for the San Francisco Giants. She's got an eye for detail.)

4. Word: Baffle
Definition: To confuse or puzzle
Sentence: It baffles me if nonrealistic things could be real. (That's bigfoot behind the tree. She's had a slight obsession with bigfoot for a while. Thank you MonsterQuest.)

4. Word: Utter
Definition: To speak or say
Sentence: My mom says I utter to much when I come home from a friends house. (Social interaction does cause her to become a Chatty Cathy.)

6. Word: Murmur
Definition: To whisper or talk quietly.
Sentence: Whenever I spend the night at my grandma's house she says that I sleepwalk and murmur all over the house. (That's Mamaw in the bed and Savannah is sleepwalking and murmuring on the right. :) )
7. Word: Shriek
Definition: To yell, scream, or screech
Sentence: I shriek when my grandpa puts fake spiders up my sleeve. (Papaw! Don't do that.)

8. Word: Hasty
Definition: Done quickly with little thought; fast
Sentence: I clean my room hasty. (That's the only way she cleans)

9. Word: Taunt
Definition: to make fun of
Sentence: If you taunt someone it is not nice.

10. Word: Qualities
Definition: A person's special features
Sentence: I have a lot of qualities. :)

Sleepover Fun

2010-02-19T19:00:00.001-08:00

Savannah had her friend, Alexis, sleepover this past weekend. Alexis brought a wii game with her called Just Dance. I Must Own This Game!! It was so fun watching them play it. (And I had to exercise quite a bit of restraint to keep myself from jumping up, knocking the girls aside, grabbing up the wii remotes, and busting a move) But when I get this game, I will regularly play this game by myself after the kids go to bed. Probably every night. I'd play it with them, but they would surely die instantly of parent-induced embarassment. Mostly because I'd show them up with my killer dance moves!

Weekend Recap

2010-02-08T15:39:00.000-08:00

We had another weekend of snow. I think we are all tired of it. Seriously.

I got a little crafting in, however, and made this fun little Valentines Day decoration. You can find the tutorial at this website.

Savannah was able to create her Valentine box for her school party. They will be having a Valentine social on Friday where the kids all decorate a shoe box at home and then bring them in on Friday to trade with another kid in the class. She is already certain that hers will be highly coveted.

Then, on Sunday, Savannah persuaded me to take her sledding. I was completely not enthusiastic about the idea and was kind of hoping she'd forget about it or we could put it off until tomorrow. (And then hope she forgets about it again.) But, since the temperature was in the upper 30 at 4:30 in the afternoon, I figured we'd better go. We bundled ourselves up and headed out to the park. The following videos show just how much fun we had. There's more videos of our sledding fun on my youtube page.

Here she was sliding down the hill just on her stomach. No sled required. It was super fun.

And the hike up the stairs. We did this trek about 800 times. My legs hurt today. I'm thinking of developing some sort of sledding and stair climbing workout. It makes exercising fun!!

We had to take a rest on a bench after about 500 hikes up the stairs, but we were still enjoying ourselves.

It's funny. We have had all this snow all winter long and this was our first time out doing some real sledding. How could we have been letting all this fun slip right through our fingers? We will probably have to hit that hill every day from now until spring just to make up for time lost. Savannah's ready to give skiing a try.

This was Savannah's first trip down the hill by herself. There was a huge, hard snowball at the bottom of the hill that had some sort of magnetic pull because every time we went down the hill we would end up flying perilously toward that giant snowball of death.

Savannah was on the super slippery sled here. It wanted to start down the hill without her. And bucked her off part way down.

One More Thing...

2010-01-31T22:04:00.001-08:00

I made this one last thing while watching the Grammy's tonight. It's a wreath made out of pages of a book! (I knew I'd find a purpose for those old mass market romance novels!) Part way through, Myles thought he would do a Lady Gaga impersonation (from the American Music Awards). ha ha.

Here's a link to the tutorial if you want to make one for yourself. It turned out really cool, but I used up a lot of glue sticks on this and suffered a few hot glue burns. I think the finished product is pretty cool. I had to snap some quick pictures before heading off to bed. I have to decide where to hang it permanently.

Alright, I'm off to bed. We'll see if my sleep deprived brain will come up with any new projects tomorrow.

Crafty Weekend

2010-01-31T12:55:00.000-08:00

We have had one crafty weekend. First off, Savannah wanted to make some ponchos for her webkinz. (Due to the fact that I have not supplied her with a sufficient amount of store bought webkinz clothes.) So, she made ponchos for every single one of her webkinz. And, she figured it out completely on her own. I took her picture her with a bunch of her newly ponchoed webkinz.

Then, last night we remembered buying the supplies, months ago, to make her a beaded curtain for her doorway. It's not actually beaded, but made out of pompoms. The result was fantastic!!

And, I finally finished painting my Dolly Mama frames. They turned out fabulous as well.

Shirley Temple Stopped By...

2010-01-29T05:41:00.000-08:00

Last night Savannah wanted me to put curlers in her hair to make it extra curly. She's going to school today as Shirley Temple's doppleganger.

I'm Officially A Winter Hater

2010-01-25T08:57:00.000-08:00

This past Sunday was planned to be a great one. I had learned that our local community playhouse was doing "Cheaper By the Dozen" and they were offering tickets to the evening show at only $7 per ticket. I had planned to take the kids. So we drove into Omaha to line up for the discounted tickets at 3pm. Tickets went on sale at 4pm. I was expecting a line. We had gone to participate in the Wicked lottery this past spring and the line was quite long. But, this line was all of 5 people long when we arrived. I still wasn't sure what to expect, so we stayed put and stood in that short little line for what turned out to be the longest and whiny-est hour of our lives.
"I'm hungry."
"I don't feel good."
"How much longer?"
That was all I heard on constant repeat for that entire hour. But, in the end, I retained my sanity, the kids retained their lives, and we had 3 cheap tickets to that evening's show! Woo-hoo.
We headed out to the car and it was snowing. Pretty hard. Flurries had been forecast, but this was more than flurries. Probably going to end quickly and be some sort of fluke, right?
WRONG!
We headed over to Mamaw and Papaw's house for a quick dinner before we had to be back at the play. The flurries had joined together on the road to form a super shiney skating rink. Stopping was not an option, unless you ran into something. Going was also a little tricky. Our first attempt at getting back to the play resulted in me sliding nearly off the road, into a snow drift and careening into a parking lot. We had travelled a whopping 2 blocks from Mamaw and Papaw's house.
With my heart racing and adrenaline pumping, I decided we were no longer going to go to the play. Tears were shed, and we slid the 2 blocks back.

After some begging and pleading, we convinced Papaw to drive us in their 4WD vehicle to the playhouse. (Yay Papaw for your superpowers behind the wheel!) We made it and only missed about 30 minutes. The play was great. Savannah was completely engrossed and it was so fun to watch her enjoying it. Unfortunately, the play is not a lot like the movie and the father of the family dies in the end. (I don't recall Steve Martin dying in the movie. What's going on? Hollywood did not properly prepare me!) So, I was the only person in the audience sobbing at the end. But, a show that can move me to tears must be good.
Then came the exciting part of the night. We had to survive the 40 minute drive home. In the dark. And the ice. And the blowing snow (which was a surprise addition once we'd reached open country. Yay, Mother Nature!) We had been offered the option of staying the night with Mamaw and Papaw, but I had to decline. Mostly because the prospect of going to work in yesterdays clothes with the bed head that always lands upon my head, was worth risking my life to avoid.
It was the scariest drive home ever! Complete white out on ice roads. It was basically the scariest episode of ice road truckers EVER, and it was happening in a pt cruiser! With a snow plow helpfully located about 3 cm from my rear bumper! Myles and I were nervous wrecks, Savannah went to sleep. Two kiddos--completely different personalities.

Most of the story goes like this:
Me: "Crap! I can't see anything! "
Myles: "I don't feel good. "
Me: "I don't either." (going 20 mph, and glancing at rear view mirror) "Crap, there's a snow plow tailgating me!"
Myles: "He's not doing us any good behind us. Are we even on the road?"
Me: "Crap! I can't see anything!"
After that repeated over and over, we made it home. Savannah slept the whole way. I felt like I'd been driving for a week. And my back hurt from hunching over the steering wheel to try to see through the blowing snow. My hands were cramped up from the death grip they had maintained on the steering wheel. The drive usually takes us about 40 minutes. This night it took us over an hour and a half. (And now I know how long it would take to crawl from Mamaw and Papaw's house to mine.)
I'm officially a Winter Hater. Mother Nature is not my friend. Well, not until springtime. We may make up then.

Ice Storm Wednesday or The Day I Crafted up a Storm

2010-01-20T17:57:00.000-08:00

Today I woke up to an ice storm. Actually, I woke up at 5am to the phone ringing and the caller id said it was the kid's school. They were calling to tell me that due to the ice storm, the kids were having a 2 hour late start. Geesh. Tell me that at 7am. Now, I was awake and my heart was pounding. So much for sleep. So, I got up, rode the exercise bike, took a shower, played around on the computer, and headed to the kitchen for some breakfast. I then washed a sink full of dirty dishes and made some chocolate chip banana bread. Quite a productive morning. Then I got the call from the school that it was going to be another snow day. Or ice day, I guess.

Unfortunately for me, I still had to head to work. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the main roads weren't icy and I wasn't doomed to crash the car this morning.

I got into a crafty mood this afternoon and made some Valentines Day decorations. I had found this paper garland on the Oh So Crafty blog. It was super easy to make so I made a second one. I made myself a heart template because I don't have a heart punch and because of the ice storm, I wasn't going out after one. After leafing through many old magazines and finding pages with images that I liked and cut them out. After that, I just sewed them all together into a garland and VOILA...

My kitchen is decked out with some adorable Valentine's decorations. Now for the rest of the house...

Pierced!

2010-01-19T15:55:00.001-08:00

Savannah has been begging me to take her to get her ears pierced. Sometime before Thanksgiving, she just decided that she wanted them pierced. BADLY! I had thought that maybe we would get them pierced as a Christmas gift. But, then I forgot. And, to be honest, I wasn't all that excited about the prospect of cleaning her earring holes and twisting her earrings anyway.
My ears are not pierced. I had them pierced when I was 6 years old, but the earring got embedded in my ear and had to be pulled through from the back. I was traumatized and have not had any desire to have them pierced again. Well, not until I was 12 or so. Then, I thought I wanted to have them pierced and accompanied my younger sister to have hers done. The plan was that if it went well for her, I'd do mine as well. Only, once I saw the ear piercing gun go up against her earlobes, I nearly fainted. I had to be removed from the room. It was embarrassing. Ear piercing trauma number 2.
So, when Savannah started ramping up her campaign for the ear piercing, I started to get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach again. Bad things happen in 3's right? Would this be the setting for my third ear piercing trauma? I can just imagine the stories. Savannah's ear piercing would have gone smoothly, except her mother suffered a concussion after she fainted dead away in Claire's. Or vomited on the Claire's employee. Or shrieked and made the piercer jump and accidentally pierce Savannah's nose. The potential for disaster seemed great.
But, since I am a mom, I had to suck it up. And, we got the ears pierced. Man, that girl is brave. She didn't panic beforehand and she didn't cry (which earned her 2 suckers!).
And, even better, I didn't embarrass her by fainting, vomiting, or shrieking. I've even been able to help her clean them without needing anti-nausea medication. But, we'll see how the first earring change goes. I've got until Saint Patrick's Day to build up that courage.

Gotta Love 'em

2010-01-19T07:55:00.001-08:00

This is an exerpt from a conversation between Myles and me last night.

Myles: What's that huge thing on your face?
Me: (perplexed) My smile?
Myles: No, its big and red and gross looking.
Me: (glaring at him) I don't know what you are talking about.
Myles: Well, you have some huge red thing on your chin. It looks really gross. I think it's a zit.
Me: Thank you for bringing it to my attention in such a sensitive way. I'm really glad that it's not that bad nor is it very noticable.
Myles: You're welcome.

Aren't kids wonderful?
(By the way, I was going to add a funny cartoon-ish picture of someone with a zit here for fun. I googled "zit" and looked at the images. Don't ever do that! Blaacccggghhh!)

For the Love of Girl Scout Cookies

2010-01-13T18:36:00.000-08:00

Can you guess what delicious treat is coming my way? Girl Scout cookies!!! My niece is in girl scouts this year. She is a brownie, and a very cute one at that. Sadly, it seems that today's brownies do not wear a head to toe brown Brownie uniform. They only have a sash that they stuff into their backpacks on Brownie meeting day. Can you believe this? I remember my Brownie days and the huge amount of pride I had in my adorable brown Brownie uniform. All of the non-Brownie girls would look enviously upon the brown uniformed Brownie girls. And the boys always chat us up about what cool badges we had sewn upon our sashes. We would bask in their admiration, while straightening our sashes and pulling up our brown knee socks. I swear half of the appeal of brownies was the cute outfit. But, the other half of the appeal was the cookies.

Well, it turns out that my niece has set a cookie selling goal of 50 boxes. If she meets this sales goal, she will be rewarded with a hefty commission. A Girl Scout Water Bottle. And, as her aunt, I have been informed that I will be responsible for purchasing 45 of those boxes. Her mother will purchase the other 5. Hmmmm.

Actually, this doesn't sound like too bad of a deal to me. At 3.50 a box, this would only set me back about $157.50. So, I couldn't buy groceries for a couple of weeks. We could totally survive on cookies, right? But, I will also have to figure in the cost of the larger sized wardrobe I will be requiring after I scarf down 45 boxes of cookies. On the plus side of that (and I said plus side, not plus size), I would get to do some shopping. And it is clearance season.

Now, I just have to decide how many of which cookies I want. Tough decisions. Tough, mouth watering decisions.

Clearance Racks and Temperature Tuesdays

2010-01-12T18:57:00.000-08:00

Savannah and I went to Target today to dig through all their clearance racks. We only hit one target store, and I'll be hitting another tomorrow. We came home with some loot, though. And I didn't spend much at all!! The after Christmas clearance season is my favorite season of the year. Here's a sampling of some of our goodies.

First, we have a brand new pair of long johns for Myles. The fact that these are smurf colored didn't influence this purchase at all. He will now be known as Myles Smurf whenever he wears these, much to his chagrin. :)

Savannah scored a cute pair of flats. She has decided to wear them to school tomorrow which means that she will have to pack her snow boots and her sneakers in her bag. Such a variety of footwear just to get through a day in the third grade! (These only cost me $3!!)

The next two pictures show my great finds. Two sweatshirts, one cost $2.98 and the other was $6 and one shirt for only $2.24. The fabulous and extremely soft black gloves are Savannah's. My favorite item of the season is featured in the second picture. Knee high socks. I'm starting a collection. When living through a winter with -40 degree wind chills, knee high socks are a must.

After we finished picking over the clearance racks, I remembered that I needed to pick up a new protective screen cover for my new ipod touch. I bought a three pack knowing full well it would probably take me 3 tries to apply the darn thing correctly. Allow me to properly set up this disaster. Christmas morning I was surprised with my new ipod touch. It is a step up from my ipod nano and I love it. It can hold most of my audio book library along with some fun apps. And, unlike an iPhone, I don't have to deal with bothersome phone calls during my farming sessions on tapfarm, nor do I have that horrible monthly bill.

In addition to the ipod touch, I was given a protective case for it in lime green (inspired by my love of Wicked) which included a screen protector. Unfortunately for me, I am a mental defective when it comes to applying the screen protector. I couldn't even figure out which of the Saran wrap-ish pieces of clear plastic was the screen protector. And was left with a bubbly, dust covered disaster after many repeated attempts. Today, I bought myself a new package of screen protectors and had planned to detail my ability to effectively adhere Saran wrap to the screen of my ipod. Here's the beginning of my new smartness...

First is a before picture. This is how my ipod has been shamefully going through it's life so far.
And, this was meant to be step 1: After removing all coverings and thoroughly cleaning the poor ipod, remove new screen protector from package.

I did this and the screen protector didn't quite seem to be the same size as my ipod. Hmmm. Upon closer inspection of the package, I had purchased screen protectors for an iPhone! DRAT. So, I had to return the sad ipod to it's green case and reapply the crappy screen protector. I did wash it off, though and while still bubbly, it looks slightly better. Tomorrow I'll be returning to Target (I wanted to hit another one anyway) and I'll be purchasing the correct screen protector. So, this story is to be continued...

But to end my day on a positive note, today was Temperature Tuesday at Runza. That means Runza only charges whatever the temperature is at 6am for their runza sandwiches. Today, Runzas were 4 cents. For those of you who aren't from Nebraska, here is a link to Runza so you can see what you are missing. They are supremely yummy. Unfortunately, the holiday season has caused most of my jeans to shrink (surely, this must be some sort of laundry issue, right? It can't have anything to do with the hours of couch sitting and face stuffing, right?) Well, Temperature Tuesdays are followed by Exercising Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays. :(

What a Winter

2010-01-12T17:07:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd take the camera with me today when I drove to work. This is what it is still like driving in Nebraska with all of the snow we have gotten in the past month. It's quite unbelievable. This is what our street looked like as I drove the kids to school this morning. The trees were all covered in ice and it was a little foggy out.

This is the street we drive to get up to the school. It's nearly impossible to see any oncoming traffic. On the right is a full parking lot and the mountains of snow are so high that you cannot even see the parked cars.

After I drop the kids off, I have to drive down the road behind the school, which has only been widened a single lane.

This is a shot of some of the icy trees I passed on my way to Omaha.

A stop sign in the snow.

A mailbox in the snow.

And a scary stretch of one of the county roads that I have to travel.

And this is my prediction of what our streets will look like after our next snow. This has been one crazy winter.

Just Another Manic Monday

2010-01-11T18:55:00.000-08:00

I am having a whopper of a Monday. I woke up this morning and had to get the kids ready for school. This is suddenly a strange disruption to my usual routine of leaving them at home with B because of a snow day. I discovered that I had absolutely nothing in the house for me to eat for breakfast and decided today was going to be a McDonald's morning. Yum Yum, right? So, I slip slide my way all the way to Omaha, excited to see a full 2 lanes of highway open for my entire travel. (Friday's commute involved long stretches of a single lane of plowed highway and me hoping a semi didn't come along to clobber me.) But, the traffic was moving soooo slowly once I got to Omaha and I was not going to work without my McDonald's. So, I was late. And to compound the situation, I had forgotten that the street I usually drive down was closed and I had to detour unexpectedly making me more late. I pulled into the parking lot, sought out an acceptable parking place, grabbed up my bags and my drink and hustled into work. I walked all the way across the building to my desk before I realized that I left my much desired breakfast in the car. Damn. So, I put my things away and grabbed my pass key and dashed back out to my car. And realized that I had left my car keys in my purse at my desk. My third attempt at getting to my breakfast was successful. I guess the repeated laps around the building was the universe's way of helping me work off those breakfast calories.
I got home this afternoon to discover B was out on the roof trying to push off the 2 feet of snow that has accumulated up there. While he is home alone. And standing on snow covered ice. Alone.
Miraculously, he never slid off the roof and the snow has been swept away. Over one small portion of the roof anyway. Unfortunately, the temperature warmed today and some of the snow and ice started to melt and drip down the back door. The gutters are overflowing with ice and are causing a spectacular fountain to pour down over our back door. This is causing an especially slippery patch of ice to form on the top step into the house and causing us to employ awe inspiring feats of daring to get into the house. Tonight, the back door is completely encased in ice from our roof fountain and will not close completely. This winter is proving to be very challenging.
And, because of the astronomical amounts of snow outside, the dogs prefer not to do their business out in the little patch of real estate that has been shovelled for them. They much prefer to leave me a present in the back porch following their evening meals. And, believe me, a present from a Great Dane does not go unnoticed.
Tomorrow is Tuesday and Tuesdays always go more smoothly for me. Plus, I'm taking Savannah shopping at Target. It's clearance time and a little retail therapy just might restore my sanity.

The Great Icicle

2010-01-07T17:09:00.000-08:00

This is one of the icicles that we broke off of our house today.

WOW!!

2010-01-07T09:06:00.001-08:00

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We've got SNOW!!

2010-01-07T08:48:00.000-08:00

Well, we've got enough snow to last us until 2015. I am home again after taking my 4th day off of work due to snowy roads. The kids are home for their 4th snow day of the year as well. By our estimates the snow will likely melt off by the 4th of July and that is also the date that the kids will get out of school for summer break because of all of the snowdays.
The snow was blowing so badly today that all of the roads in my entire county are closed. That sounds pretty bad. I haven't left the house to find out. Additionally, it's about -20 degrees outside. I'm starting to think hibernation sounds like a good idea. I'll be cuddled up with the kids today under quilts watching movies and reading books while chili is cooking in the kitchen. We know how to do snowed in.
The kids got new sleds for Christmas and this year we've got enough snow to actually use them right away, but it's been so cold that I haven't been motivated enough to take them to the big sledding hill. I know it would involve about 45 minutes of prep work and bundling for only 5 minutes of sledding fun before frostbite starts to set in. A warm up is coming the weatherman promises. As soon as it does, we'll be out sledding!!
By the way, the picture above does accurately represent what my backyard currently looks like.

An Unexpected Visitor

2009-12-22T15:57:00.000-08:00

This evening we had an unexpected visitor. Scarlet the elf! We heard some jingle bells coming down the stairs and suddenly Scarlet the elf appeared around the corner.

There appears to have been a very bad boy sitting behind Scarlet when I was taking a picture of our surprise visitor. Apparently, he is not concerned about his standing on the naughty or nice list. Scarlet will be reporting back to Santa about those bunny ears!

Scarlet was dressed all in red (appropriately), but the elf shoes on her feet bore a remarkable resemblance to the elf hats that I had purchased for Savannah and a friend to wear during their school Christmas program (which were never worn).

She even had a Build a Bear bow on her ponytail. Very authentic.

We were all very glad to have this visitor for the night. She was very cute. And with the exception of Myles, we were all on our best behavior. I guess when piles of coal are found in his stocking, we'll know why.

One light goes out, They all go out!!

2009-12-17T19:36:00.000-08:00

Tonight, I have experienced one of the 12 pains of Christmas. (Thank you Bob Rivers, I love that song.) Hanging Christmas lights. No, not on the outside of my house, but on my Christmas tree. At my house we have a Christmas forest rather than just one Christmas tree. 4 trees of varying heights, each with it's own decoration theme. Earlier this week, Myles noticed that the tallest tree and second tallest tree were not lighting up. GREAT!!

So, I decided that I would test the lights and buy some new ones to replace the non-working lights. Tree 2 has multi color lights and plugs into Tree 1, which has clear lights and plugs into Tree 3, which has pink lights and plugs into the wall. Tree 4 has no lights at all and is now my favorite of the trees because it causes me no problems. After isolating each tree and testing the lights, I discovered that it was Tree 1 that was causing the problem. I went to Walmart and purchased a new package of clear lights and today I buckled down to remove all of the 5 million tiny colorful glass ball decorations, blown glass decorations, and strings of blown glass garland.

About an hour later, I was ready to remove the lights. This is a task that I absolutely hate, which is why the trees get put away every year with the lights still on them. Part way through the removal process I realized that I had 4 strands of clear lights wrapped around this tree! 4! And, it turned out that only the one in the middle of the tree wasn't working. So, I only had to unwrap half of the tree. Yipee!

I unwrapped, opened new lights, connected the plugs, and re wrapped the tree. Then, I pushed the tree back into position, connected all the trees together again and called in the kids for the Griswald-esque reveal of the working lights. And, in true Griswald fashion (drum roll, please), this was the result (notice the dark area in the middle of the tree)...

The middle portion of Tree 1 was, for some unknown reason, repelling working Christmas lights. Turns out only half of the new strand of lights was working. Half? I thought if one light goes out, they all go out. So, I grabbed one more strand of lights and decided to just layer this strand over the non-working half and call it good. Separate all the trees again. Wrap lights around and around. Push trees back into position. Connect all plugs. And this was the result...

Now, I had lost the lights on Tree 2. At this point I invented some new, especially festive curse words and considered turning the trees into mulch.

Some time later, I unwrapped Tree 1 again, completely removing all of the lights on the tree. I decided to just use the one strand of clear lights that were working and re wrap the entire tree with just the one strand. Surprisingly, it worked! And Christmas is not cancelled. The Christmas tree forest is slightly less bright than it was originally, but so is my Christmas spirit. (Hopefully it will recharge after I start wrapping tonight. Ha!)

Time Flies!

2009-12-15T19:56:00.000-08:00

It's nearly Christmas and I'm really not sure where the time has gone. I'm also not sure where all of my available spending cash went either. Maybe it was sucked out of my purse while I was at Target attempting to grant my children the greatest Christmas of all time!! (I may have succeeded this year, but I can't talk about that until after Dec. 25th. I have learned that my kids have quickly caught up with me on computer abilities. Their snooping skills are still sadly sub par, however.)

So, to catch every one up...

1. B hit a deer and wrecked our car. Boo-hoo. But, we got a rental that I sort of grew to love. Until...

2. We got hit by the blizzard of 2009. On that day I learned that our rental car hates the snowy weather nearly as much as I do and prefers to stay tucked away at home.

During the blizzard, the kids got 3 snow days in a row! Greatest 3 days ever as evidenced in the photos below. I am pretty sure that Myles is campaigning for larger xmas gifts by doing so much work for me outside. He shovelled all the sidewalks and cleaned off the car for me. I may have to start shopping for a snow blower to give him for Christmas.

3. Another great event that just happened in our house was captured in this picture:

Myles finally got to eat his first ear of corn on the cob since getting his braces off. It's incredibly difficult to track down some corn on the cob that looks edible in December, but we finally did it and it was delicious!

4. We were able to meet a couple of Santa's reindeer last weekend. Dancer and Prancer. They were very uninterested in us and preferred to eat. They also didn't fly at all!! But they were fun to see. Just prior to our meeting the reindeer, we spotted Santa driving a blue Oldsmobile. I guess that's his back up transportation when his reindeer are out doing PR.

5. Last night was the Christmas program at the kid's school. The kindergarten through third grade performed and the 5th and 6th grade band opened up the show. It was a smash hit! You can watch the most important parts on my youtube page here. The incredible camera work explains why hollywood is constantly calling me. (I think I need a tripod. Or possible some arm muscles.)

6. Finally, I am now gearing up for the last few days left before Christmas. I have shopping to finish. I haven't even begun to wrap anything. And, I really have no idea if the gifts I have purchased for the kids are in any way even. The school parties are coming up next week and we have Christmas cookies to bake. I've been waaaayyyy too busy lately and have decided that all I really want for Christmas is a nap. A long, uninterrupted nap. Please, Santa, please.

Super Mario Mania!!

2009-12-06T20:03:00.001-08:00

This weekend I thought it would be fun to rent the New Super Mario Bros. for the DS. I have always loved playing the Super Mario games and kicking some Koopa butt. I still remember playing the original on my old Nintendo which was hooked up to my parents console television (and still is). Savannah is the sole owner of a Nintendo Ds in our household. She is also the only one in our house who doesn't enjoy the Super Mario games. This weekend we planned to change that.

I brought the game home and immediately began to test it out. Then Myles caught wind of what I was doing and quickly demanded a turn. Savannah remained distant, determined that she didn't like the Super Mario games. So, we let her watch as Myles and I would raise the DS up over our heads attempting to help Mario leap a large gap, or kick our feet violently up into the air after Mario died a premature death. Finally, the nervous ticks, sweat, and bad words lured Savannah over to us. She wanted in on the action. And she promptly died. That was it. She wanted nothing further to do with the "stupid Super Mario game!"

Myles and I have been fighting over it all weekend and we have learned one thing: Super Mario causes ulcers. (and creative bad language) Our goal had been to beat the game before I have to return it, but it's going back tomorrow and we have only made it to world 6. (Ugh, the frustration.) The good news is that this has totally renewed Myles's interest in the Mario games that we do have. And, since he has only been interested in playing sports video games (boring!!!!), I am very excited about this. I can finally play video games with him again and enjoy myself. (And also have a chance at beating him) However, the housework that I have already put off for 500 other reasons, will still sit undone because we are busy playing video games. Who needs clean clothes or home cooked meals, when we are desperately trying to rescue Princess Peach? A poor princess's life is hanging in the balance!

The Braces are Off!

2009-11-25T05:48:00.001-08:00

Well, Monday was a big day in our house. Myles finally got his braces off! Woo-hoo! I'm still not used to looking at him and seeing teeth instead of braces. We had big plans to get him something special for dinner Monday night. He had specially requested corn on the cob. He hasn't been able to eat corn on the cob for the past 2 summers, and living in Nebraska, corn on the cob is a staple of our summer dinners. Mmmmmm farm fresh corn on the cob. But, unfortunately it's November not July, so farm fresh corn on the cob isn't available. So, we thought we buy some frozen ears of corn (something I'd never done before). Well, looking at those sad bags of very expensive freezer burned corn at the grocery store forced us to forgo our plan for dinner. Such a pity. All this time waiting and he's still going to have to wait until next summer. Anything less than fresh just isn't going to cut it.

Those teeth look nice and straight, don't they? I wish the sun would have been out so my pictures didn't look so gloomy.

Count Down to New Moon and the mini Edward

2009-11-19T18:51:00.000-08:00

I am anxiously awaiting my chance to see New Moon. My sister and I have tickets to see the Saturday matinee. We weren't hard core enough to make it to the midnight showing tonight. We have been planning to see this movie for months, though. Then, my son, Myles, gets invited to a birthday party friday night (New Moon opening night) and he and his friends will be going to see the movie before me. And I'm the big Twilight fan. But Jen Lancaster may have me beat. I haven't gotten the action figures. Only because of the ridicule I know I'd have to endure.

Anyway, since Myles has been happily rubbing my face in the fact that he's going to see the movie before me I thought I needed to turn him into a vampire. Here is my Edward. And in case you were unsure, we are a Team Edward household.

2009-11-13T18:05:00.001-08:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

2009-11-13T17:54:00.001-08:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

2009-11-13T17:11:00.001-08:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Hot or Not?

2009-11-09T10:38:00.000-08:00

Today I am wearing a sweater that I had bought myself over the weekend. I was out doing a little Christmas shopping and found myself a sweater on clearance and had to buy it. (I like to reward myself while shopping for gifts). It is a very cute sweater with purple and gray stripes and a cowl neck. And it's lightweight and very comfortable. And, I thought I looked quite good in it.

This morning while in the kitchen getting ready to leave, Savannah walks in and laughs at me. "Your sweater's on backwards," she says. "What?" I asked her. She was all giggly and I thought she was just being goofy, so I disregarded her comment. Then Myles comes into the kitchen. He, too, laughs at me and tells me my sweater is on backwards. Now, I'm a little concerned. I glance down at myself and see nothing amiss.

"What are you talking about?" I asked them. They are both still hysterically laughing and pointing at me.

"Mom," Myles says, trying to catch his breath, "your hoodie is in the front instead of the back." He means that my cute cowl neck sweater looks more like a backwards hoodie sweater. So, in 5 minutes time I went from feeling hot in my new sweater, to feeling self conscious wondering how many other people today will be looking at me wondering if I realize I have my hoodie sweater on backwards. Thanks kids!

Procrastination Payback.

2009-11-04T10:21:00.000-08:00

Well, my mom did it to me again. As a child she cursed me. And that curse has been lying in wait. Just hanging out waiting to rear it's evil little head. Last week, it got in it's first punch.

When I was a kid, I was the supreme master of procrastination (I still hold the title). I think I was under the delusion that I worked better under pressure. Actually, my panic in meeting an unmeetable deadline probably just resulted in many people having to chip in to make things work out for me. I can recall many last minute school projects being worked on the night before they were due and my mother telling me that someday I would have a child who would put things off until the last minute and I would be left feeling as frustrated as she did.

Well, last week was payback time.

I had come home after picking up the kids from school and was completely exhausted. I immediately changed into comfy clothes (none of which matched, but all of which was super comfy and perfect for laying on the couch in). After enjoying about 30 minutes of couch time, Myles informed me that he had a social studies project due tomorrow and he needed to bring in homemade pretzels.

He is learning about immigration to the US in the early 1900s and is playing the part of a German immigrant. "Can't we take in some gummy bears?" I asked him. "No! It has to be homemade or I'll get a bad grade," he informed me. This is perfect because not only do pretzels take about 5 hours to make, I don't have any yeast in the house. So, I have to run to Walmart to pick some up. And, I'm currently wearing an outfit that would guarantee me a place on the PeopleOfWalmart.com. Damn! So, I have to change my clothes and Myles and I run to Walmart.

So once we get home I have to make dinner and clean up the kitchen so that there is a usable surface free of dirty dishes that we can roll pretzels out on. This is much more work than I'm up for. None of this added stress is bothering Myles in the least. "You are going to do most of the work making these pretzels," I told Myles. Only, that didn't work out since his teachers also assigned about 3 hours of other homework to do on top of this procrastinated project.

I was elbow deep in pretzel dough, when Myles strode into the room telling me that he can put his "3 German things" in a pillow case or bag. "What 3 German things?" I ask. "We have to bring 3 German things that our immigrant would have brought with him from their country," he explained. "What are you taking?" I ask. He shrugs. So I order him to go seek out his 3 things and report back. I continued kneading pretzel dough quite angrily.

"Are their snakes in Germany?" he asks me a few minutes later. "Why?" I ask. Well, my boy spent 30 whole seconds coming up with a rock, a leaf, and a snake as his 3 things to take in his sack. "I'm pretty sure they have all these things in Germany," he tells me proudly. "Really? Do you really think that an immigrant would choose to bring a rock, a leaf, and a SNAKE along on the long long journey across the ocean to the United States. Those are the 3 things he'd want in his bag?" His face fell as he realized that I wasn't impressed at his tiny little effort on this project. He stalked out of the room to hunt down some better "German things".

I was now ready to hide sauerkraut inside of these pretzels as punishment for dumping all of this on me so last minute.

So, while the pretzel dough was rising, we found 3 better "German things". He took an old book of mine that is written in German (the book was published in 1925 and his immigrant came over in 1905, but close enough), he drew a German flag, and out of desperation, we threw in a recipe for German potato salad (that's still better than a snake). If I were coming to the US from Germany, I know I wouldn't want to leave behind my German potato salad recipe. Then we had about 5 minutes to spare in which we crafted some lederhosen out of colored paper and staples. (He had asked me if I had any lederhosen that he could just borrow for his costume, but unfortunately I had already worn my to work that week and they were in the laundry.)

I have yet to see the grade on our last minute project, but I'm hoping we did alright. Really, the pretzels alone should have earned him an A+. But, in fairness, I have passed along the curse. He, too, will have procrastinating offspring.

Halloween 2009

2009-11-04T10:04:00.000-08:00

How did Halloween come and go so quickly this year? I always look forward to this time of year because it's my favorite season to decorate for. And, I usually do it very very early to get maximum enjoyment out of my decorations. This year I just couldn't keep up. We finally got our cute porch things out the week before Halloween and we didn't even carve our pumpkins until the afternoon of Halloween. Anyway, this is how awesome our pumpkins turned out.

Here is a fun video of what happened to the one pumpkin that hadn't ripened completely and was not able to be carved. The kids found another purpose for that pumpkin.

After all of that mess, I am predicting that we have pumpkins sprouting up under that tree in our front yard and next to our porch where most of the carving and seed spilling took place. Pumpkin vines everywhere might be our landscaping theme next year. Won't the neighbors be excited?

Here are the kids in their costumes.

Myles and Savannah both went trick or treating with friends this year, leaving me at home to deal with all the neighborhood trick or treaters. I was usually able to weasel out of this duty because I was the one taking the kids around. It was a nice night out, though, and B and I sat out on our porch and handed out candy and scared kids with our skeleton guy.

B also brought out his red laser pointer and we discovered that it will shine a laser light all the way across the street, across the neighbor's yard, up their siding, through their open front door, and onto their living room wall. This will result in the neighbors coming to the door to look out in confusion as to where that red dot of light dancing all over their living room wall is coming from. Once, they sat back down, we did it again. And they came to investigate again. It was a great way to entertain ourselves between groups of trick or treaters.

All in all, it was a sort of strange Halloween for me. The kids came home with their sacks full of delicious candy (and I haven't even stole much of it yet). But, they are getting older and Myles says that next year he probably won't go trick or treating since he'll be too old. (He was a bit glum about it, though) So, we are planning a Halloween party for his friends next year complete with scary movies that I'll refuse to watch. (I get nightmares). But for now, Halloween is over and I get to begin stressing about Christmas. Black Friday ads are already taunting me. EEEEKKK!!!